System and method for seamless horizontal scaling using logical scalable units

ABSTRACT

The performance of a scalable computing environment in a telecommunication network may be improved by configuring a server computing system to monitor a level of traffic throughput within the telecommunication network to determine whether an increase in throughput capacity is needed or a decrease in throughput capacity is acceptable, and increasing a throughput capacity of the telecommunication network when an increase in throughput capacity is needed by adding a logical scalable unit to the telecommunication network. The logical scalable unit may including a minimum combination of logical components required to provide in a single multiprocessor system a complete set of telecommunication functionalities for a subset of users in the telecommunication network.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/652,731, titled “System and Method for ProportionallyScaling Stateful Application Servers within a TelecommunicationsNetwork” filed May 29, 2012, the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Telecommunications networks have seen very rapid advances in theirnumbers of users, and the types of services available. In particular,the combination of data-orientated mobile telecommunications networks(e.g., 3G, 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.) and feature rich smart phones andtablet devices has enabled users to consume a greater variety ofservices. These increases in the number of users, and the types ofservices available, have increased the need for telecommunicationsnetwork operators to deploy new nodes, such as policy applicationservers and charging application servers, within their infrastructures.

Another recent development within the computing industry has been theproliferation and availability of cheap computing resources, which inturn has facilitated scalable computing. Initially this was achievedthrough hardware advances, such as the transition from costlyspecialized mainframe hardware to the more readily available, andrelatively inexpensive, commodity hardware. This commodity hardware isconstantly becoming smaller and more efficient through economies ofscale, and this has enabled datacenters to deploy an ever increasingamount of computer resources per cubic meter.

More recently, there has been a widespread adoption of virtualizationtechnology, and this in turn has lead to the growth in popularity anduse of cloud computing platforms. These cloud computing platforms enablethe rapid (typically within seconds or minutes) scaling-up andscaling-down of computing resources in order to meet the current demand.Further, these computing resources are typically available for otheruses when they would otherwise be underutilized. These computingresources are normally very cost effective, and they are only paid forthe periods during which they are consumed.

Cloud computing environments may provide different types of resources asservices, such as physical computing resources (known asInfrastructure-as-a-Service) or standardized software environments(known as Platform-as-a-Service). Cloud computing environments may bepublic, private, or hybrid. In public clouds, or community clouds, theinfrastructure is shared between many organizations on a commercialbasis. In private clouds the infrastructure is owned, operated, and usedby a single organization. Hybrid clouds are a mix of public and privateclouds.

Certain types of application servers, such as stateless applicationservers, can instantly benefit from being scaled using scalablecomputing resources, such as that provided by cloud computingenvironments. The throughput performance of these application servers istypically directly proportional to the performance of the scalablecomputing resources. However, other types of application servers, suchas stateful application servers, are unable to scale linearly usingexisting scalable computing resources and solutions.

Many of the application servers required by telecommunications networkoperators are stateful. For example, both policy application servers andcharging application servers need to maintain session stores thatcontain stateful information. Further, telecommunications networkoperators require that these application servers operate in ahigh-availability manner, such that they contain enough redundancy toensure that there is not a single point-of-failure. New methods andsystems that enable the scaling of such stateful and highly availableapplication servers using scalable computing resources will bebeneficial to telecommunication service providers and to consumers ofservices provided by telecommunication networks.

SUMMARY

The various embodiments include methods, devices and systems configuredwith processor-executable instructions to implement methods of storing,performing, and organizing data, communications, and components in atelecommunication system so that the system better supports elasticallyscalable databases, achieves improved data locality, reduces the latencyof the components, and achieves faster response times.

An embodiment method of improving performance of a scalable computingenvironment in a telecommunication network includes monitoring a levelof traffic throughput within the telecommunication network to determinewhether an increase in throughput capacity is needed or a decrease inthe throughput capacity is acceptable, and increasing the throughputcapacity of the telecommunication network in response to determiningthat an increase in the throughput capacity is needed by adding alogical scalable unit to the telecommunication network, and decreasingthe throughput capacity of the telecommunication network in response todetermining that a decrease in the throughput capacity is acceptable byremoving an existing logical scalable unit from the telecommunicationnetwork. The logical scalable unit may include a minimum combination oflogical components required to provide in a single multiprocessor systema complete set of telecommunication functionalities for a subset ofusers in the telecommunication network.

In an embodiment, increasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by adding a logical scalable unit to thetelecommunication network includes adding a multiprocessor computingsystem configured to provide a portion of a functionality of an onlinecharging system (OCS) and a portion of a functionality of a policycontrol and charging rules function (PCRF).

In a further embodiment, increasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by adding a logical scalable unit to thetelecommunication network includes adding a multiprocessor computingsystem configured to provide complete functionality of an onlinecharging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function(PCRF) for a small subset of the users in the telecommunication network.

In a further embodiment, increasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by adding a logical scalable unit to thetelecommunication network includes adding a multiprocessor computingsystem configured to provide complete functionality of an onlinecharging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function(PCRF) for a single user of the telecommunication network.

In a further embodiment, the multiprocessor computing system is a singleserver rack within a datacenter. In a further embodiment, themultiprocessor computing system is included in a single computingdevice.

In a further embodiment, monitoring the level of traffic throughputwithin the telecommunication network includes monitoring a number ofsessions within the telecommunication network, and increasing thethroughput capacity of the telecommunication network by adding a logicalscalable unit to the telecommunication network includes adding a newlogical scalable unit in response detecting to an increase in the numberof sessions within the telecommunication network.

In a further embodiment, decreasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by removing an existing logical scalable unitfrom the telecommunication network includes terminating transmissions ofnew communication messages to a selected logical scalable unit, waitingfor existing sessions of the selected logical scalable unit to expire,and removing the selected logical scalable unit from thetelecommunication network in response to determining that the existingsessions have expired.

In a further embodiment, decreasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by removing an existing logical scalable unitfrom the telecommunication network includes terminating transmissions ofnew communication messages to a selected logical scalable unit,transferring existing sessions of the selected logical scalable unit toanother logical scalable unit, and removing the selected logicalscalable unit from the telecommunication network in response todetermining that the existing sessions have been transferred.

In a further embodiment, increasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by adding one or more logical scalable unitsto the telecommunication network includes adding a logical scalable unitthat includes both a virtualized data plane component and a virtualizedcontrol plane component.

In a further embodiment, adding a logical scalable unit that includesboth a data plane component and a control plane component includesadding a logical scalable unit that includes at least two of: a router,a policy server, an online charging server, an offline charging server,a mobile application server, and a deep packet inspector (DPI).

In a further embodiment, increasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by adding one or more logical scalable unitsto the telecommunication network includes configuring a server withprocessor executable instructions to perform functions of at least twoof a virtualized router, a policy server, an online charging server, anoffline charging server, a mobile application server, and a deep packetinspector (DPI), connecting the server to the telecommunication network,and transmitting new communication messages to the logical scalable unitimplemented in the server.

In a further embodiment, increasing the throughput capacity of thetelecommunication network by adding one or more logical scalable unitsto the telecommunication network includes adding a logical scalable unitconfigured to provide machine to machine (M2M) functionality.

A further embodiment includes a computing device, such as a server orrouter, configured with processor-executable instructions to performoperations of the embodiment methods described above.

A further embodiment includes a non-transitory processor-readable mediumon which are stored processor-executable instructions configured tocause a processor to perform operations of the embodiment methodsdescribed above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitutepart of this specification, illustrate exemplary aspects of theinvention, and together with the general description given above and thedetailed description given below, serve to explain the features of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a prior art system for connectingmultiple clients to multiple stateless servers in a scalable computingenvironment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment system forconnecting multiple clients to logical scalable units in a scalablecomputing environment.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are block diagrams illustrating example logical andfunctional components in an embodiment logical scalable unit.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example logical and functionalcomponents in an embodiment logical scalable that suitable for use in a3GPP network.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the communication links andlogical and functional components in an example telecommunication systemhaving a centralized storage system.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the communication links andlogical and functional components in an example telecommunication systemhaving a “shared nothing” elastically scalable cloud architecture inwhich the data is distributed over a number of database nodes/componentssuitable for use with various embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating the communication links andlogical and functional components in an embodiment telecommunicationsystem having a layered architecture in which the application, database,and storage layers are merged to achieve improved data locality.

FIG. 9A is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a communication message using a combination of acommon key routing method and a data locality table method.

FIG. 9B is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a second communication message using a combinationof a common key routing method and a data locality table method.

FIG. 10A is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a communication message using a combination of acommon key routing method and a database proxy architecture method.

FIG. 10B is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a second communication message using a combinationof a common key routing method and a database proxy architecture method.

FIG. 11A is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a communication message using a combination of anindependent key routing method and a data locality table method.

FIG. 11B is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a second communication message using a combinationof an independent key routing method and a data locality table method.

FIG. 12A is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a communication message using a combination of anindependent key routing method and a database proxy architecture method.

FIG. 12B is a block diagram illustrating the operations and interactionsbetween various components configured to perform an embodiment systemmethod of processing a second communication message using an independentkey routing method and a database proxy architecture method.

FIG. 13 is a process flow chart illustrating an embodiment common keyrouting and data locality table (CKR-DLT) method of processingcommunication messages.

FIG. 14 is a process flow chart illustrating an embodiment common keyrouting and database proxy architecture (CKR-DPA) method of processingcommunication messages.

FIGS. 15A and 15B are process flow charts illustrating an embodimentindependent key routing and data locality table (IKR-DLT) method ofprocessing a request message.

FIGS. 16A and 16B are process flow charts illustrating an embodimentindependent key routing and database proxy architecture (IKR-DPA) methodof processing a request message.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment subscriberdata-centric system that includes components configured achieve improveddata locality.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment system thatincludes a plurality of logical scalable units organized into ahierarchy.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating another embodiment system thatincludes a plurality of logical scalable units organized into ahierarchy.

FIG. 20 is a system block diagram of a server suitable for implementingvarious embodiments.

FIG. 21 is a process flow chart illustrating an embodiment method fordynamically deploying and withdrawing logical scalable units within atelecommunication network as network demands dictate.

DESCRIPTION

The various embodiments will be described in detail with reference tothe accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numberswill be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.References made to particular examples and implementations are forillustrative purposes, and are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention or the claims.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “node,”“system,” and the like are intended to include a computer-relatedentity, such as, but not limited to, hardware, firmware, a combinationof hardware and software, software, or software in execution, which areconfigured to perform particular operations or functions. For example, acomponent may be, but is not limited to, a process running on aprocessor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution,a program, and/or a computing device. By way of illustration, both anapplication running on a computing device and the computing device maybe referred to as a component. One or more components may reside withina single process and/or thread of execution. A component may belocalized on one processor or core, or distributed between two or moreprocessors or cores. In addition, components may execute from variousnon-transitory computer readable media having various instructionsand/or data structures stored thereon. Components may communicate by wayof local and/or remote processes, function or procedure calls,electronic signals, data packets, memory read/writes, and other knownnetwork, computer, processor, and/or process related communicationmethodologies.

As used in this application, the phrase “data locality” refers to theproximity of data (or the component or memory storing the data) to theapplication or component that accesses the data or is tasked withprocessing the data.

A number of different cellular and mobile communication services andstandards are available or contemplated in the future, all of which mayimplement and benefit from the various embodiments. Such services andstandards include, e.g., third generation partnership project (3GPP),long term evolution (LTE) systems, third generation wireless mobilecommunication technology (3G), fourth generation wireless mobilecommunication technology (4G), global system for mobile communications(GSM), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), 3GSM, generalpacket radio service (GPRS), code division multiple access (CDMA)systems (e.g., cdmaOne, CDMA2000™), enhanced data rates for GSMevolution (EDGE), advanced mobile phone system (AMPS), digital AMPS(IS-136/TDMA), evolution-data optimized (EV-DO), digital enhancedcordless telecommunications (DECT), Worldwide Interoperability forMicrowave Access (WiMAX), wireless local area network (WLAN), Wi-FiProtected Access I & II (WPA, WPA2), and integrated digital enhancednetwork (iden). Each of these technologies involves, for example, thetransmission and reception of signaling and content messages. It shouldbe understood that any references to terminology and/or technicaldetails related to an individual standard or technology are forillustrative purposes only, and are not intended to limit the scope ofthe claims to a particular communication system or technology unlessspecifically recited in the claim language.

The various embodiments provide methods, devices and systems formanaging communications in a network. The various embodiments includemethods, and servers configured to implement the methods, of usingscalable computing resources to allow stateful application serverswithin telecommunication networks to scale up or down commensurate withthe computing demands, network traffic, or workload placed on thenetwork.

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art system 100 in which multiple clients 102connect to multiple stateless application servers 106 via a router 104configured to provide load balancing functionality. The load balancingfunctionality may be as simple as performing round-robin load balancingoperations in which requests received from the clients 102 aredistributed evenly across all the available stateless applicationservers 106. The clients 102 may include any type of softwareapplication, service or component that consumes any of the servicesprovided by the stateless application servers 106.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment system 200 in which multiple clients102 are connected to logical scalable units 202 in lieu of the statelessapplication servers 106. Each logical scalable unit 202 may include acollection of internal components having a single external serviceinterface that operates as a façade/interface to the internalcomponents. The internal components of the logical scalable unit 202 mayinclude application servers, routers, memories, persistent storageunits, and other similar components. Each logical scalable unit 202 maybe configured to provide a quantifiable level of throughput or services(e.g., measured in transactions per second or “TPS”), and may operateindependent of all of the other logical scalable units 202 included inthe system 200. In an embodiment, each logical scalable unit 202 may bethe smallest discrete grouping of components suitable for providing adefined functionality.

For embodiments suitable for deployment in a 3GPP network, the clients102 may include a policy and charging enforcement functions (PCEFs)component and/or an application functions (AFs) component. The router104 may be a Diameter routing agent (DRA) as described in 3GPP TS 23.203and 3GPP TS 29.213, or a dynamic context router (DCR) as described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/309,008 titled “Methods, Systems AndDevices For Dynamic Context-Based Routing,” the entire contents of bothof which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The overall system throughput of the system 200 may be increased byadding additional logical scalable units 202 to the system 200. Eachindividual logical scalable unit 202 may be organized or configured toprovide a number of features that enable the overall system 200 to be anelastic and/or horizontally scalable computing environment. The logicalscalable units 202 may include online charging systems (OCSs), offlinecharging systems (OFCSs), and/or policy control and charging rulesfunctions (PCRFs). The protocols used for communication between thesenodes may be Diameter based protocols such as Gx, Gy, Rx, Sy, S9, Gxa,Gxc, Sd, Sh, etc.

In an embodiment, the network router 104 may be configured to loadbalance messages across the logical scalable units 202. The networkrouter 104 may be configured to associate sessions with logical scalableunits 202, and may route messages to the appropriate logical scalableunits 202 when the messages are part of an existing session. The networkrouter 104 may perform load balancing operations to route messages thatare not part of an existing session to the logical scalable units 202,which may be accomplished by implementing a round-robin load balancingscheme or may be performed based on the measured or detected workloadsof the logical scalable units 202.

The system 200 may be a scalable computing environment, which in anembodiment, may be realized by provisioning and/or enabling a singleserver rack/chassis within a datacenter to operate as a logical scalableunit 202.

In an alternative embodiment, the scalable computing environment may berealized via a cloud computing environment. In this embodiment, alogical scalable unit 202 may be provisioned, created, organized, and/orgenerated dynamically, using resources (e.g., application servers,persistent storage, load balancers, etc.) within a cloud computingenvironment, network, or service. Within such a cloud computingenvironment each application server may be realized using a virtualserver, which along with other virtualization technologies, allows thephysical servers and storage devices to be shared by manydevices/clients. Virtualization technologies may also be used toreplicate, transfer, or migrate stored data and applications from onephysical location/server to another efficiently and without impactingthe users or applications of the cloud computing system.

In an embodiment, the scalable computing environment may be realized ina multi-datacenter environment, in which case, a single logical scalableunit 202 may be distributed across two or more datacenters. A logicalscalable unit 202 may provide or make use of geo-redundancy, in whichdata and/or functionality is replicated between two geographicallydistant sites so that clients and applications can switch from one siteto another seamlessly and without impacting the operations of thesystem.

The system's 200 capabilities may be scaled up or down by increasing ordecreasing the number of logical scalable units 202. In an embodiment,scaling up the scalable computing environment may include adding newlogical scalable units 202 to the system 200 in response to an increasein the number of sessions. In an embodiment, scaling down the scalablecomputing environment may include stopping the sending of new messagesto the logical scalable unit 202, and subsequently waiting for existingsessions of an existing logical scalable unit 202 to expire beforeremoving that logical scalable unit 202 from the system 200. Theseembodiments are particularly well suited for use with data that has ashort life cycle (e.g., policy-based sessions, etc.). In an embodiment,data may be migrated from one logical scalable unit 202 to anotherlogical scalable unit 202 without interrupting the operation of system200. This embodiment is particularly well suited for use with data thathas a long life cycle (e.g., subscriber information, balanceinformation, and Voice over LTE using IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS),etc.).

In an embodiment, the system 200 may include a manager 204 componentconfigured to dynamically increase and/or decrease the computingresources available or used by the system 200 to match detectedincreases or decreases in computing demands. The manager 204 may adjustthe computing resources by implementing any of a number of knownmethods, any of the methods or solutions discussed herein, or anycombination thereof. For example, the scalability manager may adjust thecomputing resources by increasing or decreasing the number ofapplication servers within one or more logical scalable units and/or byincreasing or decreasing the number of logical scalable units includedin the scalable computing environment/system, etc.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the manager 204 component includesa virtualization manager 206, a machine configuration manager 208, ahypervisor manager 210, and a scaling manager 211. The virtualizationmanager 206 may be configured to manage deployments and monitor thevarious virtual machine instances. The machine configuration manager 208may be configured to automatically configure the operating systems andapplications running on the virtual machines within the logical scalableunits 202. The hypervisor manager 210 may be used to configure andprovision new hypervisors, such as by creating new virtual hardwaresuitable for use in or as a virtual machine. The scaling manager 211 maybe configured to monitor application level performance and/or theperformance of the logical scalable units 202, and perform variousoperations to scale the system up or down based on the monitoredperformance.

The manager 204 component may include a template repository 216 thatincludes a plurality of templates 212, 215 suitable for use increating/instantiating new instances of network routers/load balancers104 (e.g., load balancer template 212) and logical scalable units 202(e.g., LSU template 215). In an embodiment, each of the templates 212,215 may be a component that includes an operating system andapplication. The operating system and application may be selected,grouped or packaged together so as to provide a specific functionalitywhile balancing reliability, consistency, speed, latency,responsiveness, etc. In an embodiment, the templates 212, 215 mayinclude well tested components that have been tested and determined toprovide a high level of consistency or reliability. The templates 212,215 may allow for additional functionality or components to be rapidlydeployed in the system 200, and reduce the number or likelihood that theaddition of components will cause deployment or configuration errors. Inan embodiment, there may be multiple versions of the same LSU templatein order to facilitate upgrades and roll-backs to the telecommunicationsnetwork.

In various embodiments, the logical scalable units 202 may includevirtualized data plane components and/or virtualized control planecomponents, such as virtualized routers, policy servers, online chargingservers, offline charging servers, persistent storage, mobileapplication servers, deep packet inspectors (DPIs), gateways (e.g.,PCEFs), etc. Mobile application servers that are suitable for inclusionin a logical scalable unit 202 are described in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/454,896 titled “Systems for Enabling Subscriber Monitoringof Telecommunications Network Usage and Service Plans,” the entirecontents of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Deep packetinspectors may be standalone, embedded in the gateway (e.g., a 3GPPApplication Detection Control (ADC) within a PCEF), or a 3GPP-compliantTraffic Detection Function (TDF).

In an embodiment, one or more components in a logical scalable unit 202may be virtualized, and the logical scalable unit 202 may be configuredto provide various different types of functionality. For example, alogical scalable unit 202 may be configured to provide any or all ofpolicy functionality, online charging functionality, offline chargingfunctionality, analytics functionality, machine-to-machine (M2M)functionality, voice functionality, video functionality, audiencemeasurement functionality, cable television functionality, etc.

FIG. 3 illustrates example logical and functional components that may beincluded in an embodiment logical scalable unit 202. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 3, the logical scalable unit 202 includes a router302, a plurality of stateless application servers 304 and a sharedsession store 306 memory. The router 302 may be configured to operate asa load balancer. The router 302 may be aware of a session state withinthe logical scalable unit 202, and when the messages are part of anexisting session, the router 302 may use the session state informationto route messages to the appropriate stateless application servers 304.

The router 302 may perform load balancing operations to distributemessages that are not part of an existing session to the variousapplication servers 304. Such load balancing operations may includeperforming a round-robin load balancing algorithm and/or distributingthe messages based on the measured or detected workloads of theapplication servers 304.

Each application server 304 may be implemented on an independent servercomputing device, and all of the application servers 304 may have accessto a shared session store 306.

In an embodiment, each logical scalable unit 202 may contain asubscription profile repository (SPR) and/or a unified data repository(UDR).

In an embodiment, the router 302 in the logical scalable unit 202 may beconfigured to send and receive information to and from a network router104. In an embodiment, the router 302 may be a network router 104.

FIG. 4 illustrates example logical and functional components that may beincluded in another embodiment logical scalable unit 202. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 4, the logical scalable unit 202 includes a sharedsession store made up of a plurality of session stores 402-408. Eachsession may be associated with a single session store 402-408, and eachstateless application server 304 may be configured to communicate witheach of the plurality of session stores 402-408.

In an embodiment, each session store 402-408 may be implemented in aseparate or independent server computing device. In an alternativeembodiment, each session store 402-408 may be implemented on a serverthat includes one or more of the stateless application servers 304.

In an embodiment, each session store 402-408 may be replicated on asecond server, i.e. the primary session store 1 may be on server 1 andthe secondary session store 1 may be on server 2, the primary sessionstore 2 may be on server 2 and the secondary session store 2 may be onserver 3, etc. This embodiment provides enhanced redundancy within thelogical scalable unit 202 by ensuring that there is a replicated sessionstore available in the event that one of them fails.

FIG. 5 illustrates example logical and functional components that may beincluded in another embodiment logical scalable unit 202 suitable foruse with a 3GPP network. In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, thelogical scalable unit 202 includes a router 302 (not shown in FIG. 5)configured to load balance Rx and Gx messages across eight PCRFs. Thelogical scalable unit 202 also includes a shared session store that issplit into eight session stores (SS), and each session store has aprimary and a secondary store to improve redundancy. For example, thelogical scalable unit 202 may include eight servers, each of which mayhost a single PCRF, a primary session store (SS), and an unrelatedsecondary store (SS′).

The logical scalable unit 202 may be configured so that when anapplication server fails (e.g., the PCRF on Blade 1), the router 302redistributes the messages previously associated with the failed PCRFacross the remaining seven PCRFs. In the event of such a failure, thesession stores (i.e., D1-P and D8-S) may continue functioning so thatthe state or state information is not lost. When the logical scalableunit 202 is configured in this manner, components outside of the logicalscalable unit 202 do not need to be informed of the PCRF failure, andcan continue to communicate with the logical scalable unit 202 withoutan interruption in service.

In an embodiment, the logical scalable unit 202 may be configured tomanage component failures by performing failover operations thatautomatically switch over to a redundant component (e.g., blade, server,memory, etc.) upon the failure or abnormal termination of a component.For example, when a primary session store fails (e.g., D1-P on Blade 1in FIG. 5), a PCRF may failover or automatically switch to a secondarysession store (i.e., D1-S on Blade 2). The associated secondary sessionstore (i.e., D1-S on Blade 2) may be promoted to become the primarysession store, and only the individual PCRF will be aware of thissession store change/failover. In an embodiment, the session stores mayuse transparent connectivity technology that hides the detail of theprimary and secondary session stores from the stateless applicationservers 304.

The logical scalable unit 202 may be configured so that when an entireserver fails (e.g., Blade 1 in FIG. 5), the router 302 in the logicalscalable unit 202 redistributes the messages previously associated witha PCRF associated with the failed server (e.g., the PCRF on Blade 1)across the remaining seven PCRFs. Further, the remaining seven PCRFs mayfailover from the failed primary session store (i.e., D1-P on Blade 1)to the associated secondary session store (i.e., D1-S on Blade 2). Theassociated secondary session store may be promoted to become the primarysession store. In this case, one of the remaining primary session stores(i.e., D8-P on Blade 8) may no longer be associated with a secondarysession store.

The various embodiment scalable computing environment and systems may beconfigured to support the addition and removal of additional or newlogical scalable units 202 to best meet the current computing demands ofthe system, while the system continues performing its regular operationsand without causing any interruptions or loss of service. This may beaccomplished may implementing any or all of the componentsconfigurations discussed above with reference to FIGS. 1-5.

In an embodiment, the network router 104 (shown in FIG. 2) may beconfigured to provide enhanced routing capabilities that enable it toselect both the logical scalable unit 202 and the stateless applicationserver 304 within the logical scalable unit 202. In this embodiment, thenetwork router 104 may be configured to perform load balancingoperations (e.g., round-robin load balancing operations), which mayinclude receiving communication messages from the clients 102 anddistributing the received communication messages across the availableapplication servers 304, choosing the stateless application servers 304that are not associated with an existing session. The load balanceroperations may also include routing messages belonging to existingsessions to another application server within the same logical scalableunit 202 in response to detecting the failure of a stateless applicationserver 304. This may remove the requirement to include a router 302within the logical scalable unit 202, but may require a more powerfulnetwork router that configured to be aware of both the logical scalableunits 202 and the stateless application servers 304.

In an embodiment, the logical scalable unit 202 may be generated ororganized to include other logical scalable units 202. For example, anembodiment scalable computing environment or system may include a parentlogical scalable unit that includes one or more child logical scalableunits. The parent and child logical scalable units may be organized intoa hierarchical tree structure. In an embodiment, one or more childlogical scalable units may be included in a parent logical scalable inlieu of one or more stateless application servers 304.

In various embodiments, a logical scalable unit 202 may be configured,generated, arranged, or organized to describe or provide a unit ofprocessing power or functionality that can be replicated and/or used tohorizontally scale a solution, deployment, system, or resource on alarge (or unlimited) scale. The logical scalable unit 202 may makesystem data central to the system configuration/architecture and/orreduce the number of endpoints that are visible to the routercomponents, reducing the system's complexly and improving itsperformance.

Each individual logical scalable unit 202 may be organized to includeall the information and resources needed to process a defined number oftasks or events, and may operate independently of all other LSUs in thesystem (i.e., does not share stateful information with other LSUs,etc.). The logical scalable unit 202 may also be configured to allowadditional processing units, components, or computing resources to beadded or removed from the system/solution without requiring changes toother components in the system. The logical scalable unit 202 may beconfigured to allow for the federation or sharding or partitioning ofdata into logical units, which may split or distribute processing. Thelogical scalable unit 202 may allow the system to dynamically adjust itsuse of hardware and network resources so that they are commensurate withthe demands placed on the system.

An embodiment scalable computing environment or system may include twoor more logical scalable units 202 that share stateful information. Byincluding two or more logical scalable units 202 that share statefulinformation in the scalable computing environment or system, the variousembodiments systems may provide a telecommunication system with seamlessscalability that requires very little or no downtime for expansion oraddition of computing resources (i.e., is elastically scalable).

In an embodiment, the scalable computing environment or system mayinclude two or more logical scalable units that do not share statefulinformation with one another. Each logical scalable unit may operateindependently of the other logical scalable units in the system, and asa result, the system may achieve improved elasticity (i.e., because eachlogical scalable unit can be brought online and taken offline withoutimpacting other logical scalable units in the system).

Generally, improving the scalability of applications and components(e.g., PCRF, OCS, etc.) that are deployed or included in atelecommunication system is an important design criterion for networkengineers, telecommunications operators, and designers oftelecommunication systems. Elastic scalability is the ability of anetwork or system to respond to changes in the workload, communications,signaling, and/or traffic demands of the telecommunication network,which may be accomplished by adding or removing various components(e.g., logical nodes, computing devices, memories, softwareapplications, processes, etc.) to the network/system to adjust thesystem's overall throughput so that it is commensurate with the currentor predicted future demands of the system.

It is often difficult to deploy or implement solutions that areelastically scalable in existing telecommunication systems due to thespeed, latency, responsiveness, and availability requirements placed onsuch systems by their subscribers, client applications, andtelecommunications operators. For example, many applications (e.g.,PCRF, OCS, etc.) require access to subscriber information that is storedin a database, and as a result, the scalability of these applicationsoften depends on the scalability of the underlying database solution.Yet, many existing scalable database solutions (e.g., solutions built onNUODB®, VOLTDB®, CASSANDRA®, MONGODB®, etc.) utilize a distributed orcloud-based architecture in which the actual or physical location (e.g.,the datacenter, rack, server computing device, memory, database node,etc.) of the stored information changes frequently (i.e., as thedatabase is scaled up or down) and/or cannot be determined in advance.As a result, requests to access information stored in a distributeddatabase system typically require that the database system perform extraprocessing and/or routing operations to locate or identify the componentin which the data is stored. These additional operations may increasedata access times of the database or the latency of the requestingapplication. While such latencies (15-100 milliseconds) may beacceptable in web-based applications and solutions, they are notacceptable for many of the applications (e.g., PCRF, OCS, etc.) that areincluded in a high-speed telecommunication system, which often requirethat data access times and latencies be kept below 5 milliseconds.

FIG. 6 illustrates communication links and logical and functionalcomponents in an example telecommunication system 600 having acentralized storage system. The telecommunication system 600 isorganized using a layered architecture that includes a routing layer602, an application layer 604, a database layer 606, and a storage layer608. In each of these layers, various hardware and/or softwarecomponents may implement functionality that is commensurate withresponsibilities or groups or categories of operations assigned to thatlayer. In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, the routing layer 602includes a router 610 component, the application layer 604 includes aplurality of application server nodes (App 1-App n) 612, the databaselayer 606 includes two databases/real application clusters (RAC) 614,and the storage layer 608 includes a single centralized storage areanetwork (SAN) 616. Each of the application server nodes 612 may be orinclude an application component (e.g., PCRF, OCS, etc.).

The telecommunication system 600 illustrated in FIG. 6 is not easilyscalable because the database layer 606 is not horizontally scalable,and all the data is stored in a single centralized SAN 616. That is, theaddition of a significant number of new applications or components inthe system 600 may reduce the speed, performance or responsiveness ofsystem 600. This is because the system uses a centralized storagesolution, and each of the added clients/components would be required toread and write data to the same centralized SAN 616 as all the otherclients/components in the system 600. This increase in the number ofcomponents accessing the same storage unit (i.e., SAN 616) may result inan increase in network communications, traffic, and contention, any orall of which may contribute to an unacceptable increase in the latenciesof the applications. Furthermore, telecommunication systems that includecentralized storage/database systems are difficult to scale while thesystem is live. For these and other reasons, telecommunication systemsthat include centralized storage/database system do not scale well andcannot make efficient use of cloud-based or distributedsystems/solutions.

FIG. 7 illustrates logical and functional components in an exampletelecommunication system 700 having a “shared nothing” elasticallyscalable cloud architecture in which the data is distributed over anumber of database nodes/components. The system 700 is organized using alayered architecture that includes a routing layer 602, an applicationlayer 604, and a combined database and a storage layer 702. In each ofthese layers, various hardware and/or software components may implementfunctionality that is commensurate with responsibilities or groups orcategories of operations assigned to that layer. The routing layer 602includes a router 610 component, and the application layer 604 includesa plurality of application server nodes (App 1-App n) 612, each of whichmay be or include an application component. The database and storagelayer 702 includes the plurality of elastically scalable database 704modules or components.

Each of the elastic database 704 modules may be stored or located on anindependent database node/component (e.g., in a separate server device,etc.), and each of the application server nodes 612 may include acommunication link to each of the elastic database 704 modules. Therouter 610 may be configured to distribute the system's workload betweenthe application server nodes 612 (e.g., using a round robin nodeselection method), and each application server node 612 may retrievedata from any of the elastic database 704 modules.

The telecommunication system 700 illustrated in FIG. 7 does not require,use, or include a centralized database system (i.e., SAN 616), and as aresult, is more scalable than the system 600 illustrated in FIG. 6.However, the system 700 may not be sufficiently fast or efficientbecause the stored data is always remote from the application servernodes 612. That is, the system 700 lacks sufficient “data locality”because the data is not stored in close proximity to theapplication/component that uses or accesses the data, and as a result,components in the system 700 may communicate over large distances viaEthernet, Internet, or other networks or network-based communicationsthat are slow or susceptible to network traffic and network I/Olatencies. For these and other reasons, the system 700 may experienceslower response times when a significant number of additional componentsare added to the system 700, and thus such a system is not highlyscalable.

The various embodiments include methods, devices and systems configuredwith processor-executable instructions to implement methods of storing,performing, and organizing data, communications, and components in atelecommunication system so that the system better supports elasticallyscalable databases, achieves improved data locality, reduces the latencyof the components, and achieves faster response times.

Generally, improving a system's “data locality” includes storing thedata in close physical, temporal, spatial, and/or logical proximity tothe components that are most likely to require access to the data. Inthe various embodiments, this may be achieved by storing data in amemory that is in the same datacenter, rack, server computing device,virtual server, virtual machine, address space, module, register set, orprocess as the components that access the data or that are tasked withprocessing the data.

Using existing solutions, it is difficult to achieve improved datalocality in systems that include elastically scalable databases (e.g.,the system 700 illustrated in FIG. 7) because the data is storedremotely and the location/memory in which the stored data is not staticor fixed. That is, scaling a system that includes an elasticallyscalable database typically includes performing load balancingoperations in which the stored data is relocated to different partitionsor shards (i.e., a different horizontal partition). The changing andremote nature of the data storage locations in such systems makes itmore difficult to identify or locate the actual or physicalcomponent/memory that stores the data in advance, and may require thatthe system perform additional network input/output, routing, orprocessing operations to locate, access and/or retrieve the data. Theseadditional operations and communications may increase the latencies ofthe applications/components in the telecommunication system. For theseand other reasons, existing solutions are not suitable for use in highlyscalable high-speed telecommunication systems.

The various embodiment methods, systems, and devices may achieve orimprove “data locality” in a telecommunication system that includes aplurality of elastically scalable databases by merging and organizingthe application, database and storage layers so that the data is (or ismore likely to be) stored/located in the same component (e.g., samedatacenter, rack, server device, service, process, etc.) as theapplications/components that require or request access to that data. Byimproving data locality, the various embodiments reduce the number ofnetwork input/output transactions that must be performed in thetelecommunications network, reduce the workload of the network and/orits sub-systems, and/or reduce the overall latency of theapplications/components. The various embodiments also improve theefficiency, scalability, and speed of the telecommunication system, itssub-systems, and its applications and components. The variousembodiments also allow the telecommunication system to use cloud-basedand distributed systems/solutions more efficiently and withoutsignificantly impacting the speed or responsiveness of the system.

FIG. 8 illustrates logical and functional components in an embodimenttelecommunication system 800 having a layered architecture in which theapplication, database and storage layers are merged to achieve improveddata locality. The system 800 may include a routing layer 602 having arouter 610 component. The system 800 may also include a combinedapplication, database, and storage layer 802 that includes a pluralityof application server nodes (App 1-App n) 612 and elastic database 704modules/components. Each of the elastic databases 704 may be stored orlocated on an independent database node/component (e.g., in a separateserver device, etc.), and each of the applications server nodes (App1-App n) 612 may be an application component that is coupled to anelastic database 704.

In an embodiment, the combined layer 802 may include, or may beorganized into, a plurality of modules 804, each of which include anapplication server node 612 and an elastic database 704. In anembodiment, an entire module 804 may be located, stored or included in asingle component (e.g., datacenter, rack, device, component, process,etc.). This may be achieved by storing both the applications and thedata used by the applications in the same component (e.g., servercomputing device). In an embodiment, one or more of the modules 804 maybe a logical scalable unit 202. In an embodiment, the system 800 may bea logical scalable unit 202.

The routing layer 602 may be horizontally scalable and/or include aplurality of router 610 components. Each router 610 component may beconfigured to receive request messages (e.g., a Credit-Control-Request(CCR) request, etc.) and route the received messages to the component(e.g., logical scalable unit 804, etc.) in which data corresponding torequest message is stored (e.g., the session). By including a pluralityof router 610 components in the routing layer 602, the variousembodiments may better ensure redundancy by providing High Availability(HA). Further, the system may include a router 610 component for each ofa variety of different message types. In an embodiment, the routinglayer 602 may include a Gx router and an Rx router. In an embodiment,the Gx router may be read and write capable and the Rx router may beread-only.

The application server nodes 612 may be any component that may be taskedwith processing a request message and requires access to subscriberrelated data stored in the elastic databases 704, such as a policymanagement system, charging system, etc. Further, each applicationserver node 612 may include any part or combination of any existingtelecommunication node, sub-system, or component. For example, anapplication server node 612 may include all or slices or portions of anycombination of a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF)component, a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) component, anapplication function (AF) component, and an online charging system (OCS)component. By combining two or more such functions in a singleapplication, the various embodiments reduce latency and improveperformance by reducing the amount of inter-component communications orsignaling that is performed in the system. Further, by moving functionsand data used by those functions into close proximity, the variousembodiments improve the system's data locality.

In an embodiment, the telecommunication system 800 or its components mayachieve improved data locality by performing methods and/or implementingsolutions that organize, store, or locate all the components and datarequired to process a request message (e.g., a CCR, etc.) in a singlelogical scalable unit (i.e., module 804). For example, a single logicalscalable unit or module 804 may be organized to include a policymanagement (e.g., PCRF) component, a subscription profile repository(SPR), reference tables, balance information, and session information ina single server computing device. Including all the components and datarequired to process a request in a single logical scalable unit (i.e.,module 804) may reduce the number of synchronous remote communicationsthat must be performed in the system 800, and reduces the amount ofinformation that is communicated between the components in the system800, when processing the request message. This may improve the speed,efficiency, and responsiveness of the system 800.

In addition to achieving improved data locality, the telecommunicationsystem 800 may perform methods and/or implement solutions that minimizesecondary key lookups (where related sessions are associated/bound witheach other based on one or more non-primary session keys), minimizecontention, and maximize parallelism of remote communications within thesystem, any or all of which may be achieved (or are made possible) byorganizing the various logical and functional components (e.g., nodes,layers, applications, modules, etc.) in the manner illustrated in FIG.8. In addition, this grouping/organization allows the telecommunicationsystem 800 to perform methods and implement solutions that cause thesystem to become highly available, better support elastic scalability,reduce the incidence of failure/failover/recovery conditions, andeliminate the need to include or use a shared or centralized storagesystem.

As new or additional components are added or removed from the system800, it is more likely that a component (server, memory, etc.) in thesystem 800 will fail or experience errors. To maintainhigh-availability, the system 800 may be required to manage componentfailures and errors by quickly switching over to (or failing over to) aredundant component when such failures/errors are detected. This istypically requires that the data stored in the elastic databases 704 bereplicated, made redundant, or otherwise made durable. In addition, asmore components are added or removed from the system 800, the softwareand/or data (e.g., subscriber data) stored in existing components mayrequire migration or redistribution to or from the added or removedcomponents. As a result, it may become difficult to ascertain or predictthe exact locations or components in which specific information isstored. Further, since the logical scalable units (i.e., modules 804)may group/associate an application server node 612 to a specific elasticdatabase 704 component, maintaining the groupings or relationshipsbetween each application server node 612 and the data in the databases704 during data migrations, redistributions and failovers becomes achallenging design criterion.

The various embodiments include methods, and systems and servercomputing devices configured to implement the methods, of providingtelecommunication network services and processing request messages so asto maintain the logical groupings and relationships between applicationsand their corresponding data/database as new components are added orremoved from the telecommunication network, and in the presence oferrors or failovers. By maintaining the logical groupings/relationships,the various embodiments may improve the network's performance,responsiveness, predictability, and efficiency, and allow the network tobetter utilize commodity hardware and/or cloud-based or distributedsystems/sub-systems.

In an embodiment, the router 610 component may include a data localitytable (DLT) that stores values suitable for use in identifying thecomponent (e.g., logical scalable unit 804, application 612, etc.) inwhich data associated with the subscriber or group of subscribers isstored. The data locality table may be stored in the router 610component as an independent table or in association with a surrogate keytable. Each router 610 component may store one or more data localitytables for each subscriber, subscriber group, or message type (e.g., Gx,Rx, Gxa, etc.).

The router 610 may use the data locality table to route messages to thecomponent (e.g., logical scalable unit 804, application 612, etc.)associated with the elastic database 704 that stores the relevant datafor a subscriber (or group of subscribers) identified in the message.When the system 800 scales or the data is moved to a new component(e.g., logical scalable unit 804), the router 610 component may updatethe values in the data locality table to reflect changes in thecomponent. In an embodiment, the router 610 component may be configuredto poll the elastic databases 704 for such changes/updates. In anotherembodiment, the elastic database 704 components may be configured topush changes/updates to the router 610 component when the database 704determines that there have been changes to the database topology.

In an embodiment, the system 800 may include a database proxyarchitecture (DPA) in which the router 610 component includes a clientapplication programming interface (API) module suitable for use inidentifying/locating a specific partition of the elastic database 704 inwhich data corresponding to a subscriber or group of subscribers isstored. In various embodiments, the client API module may provide orinclude any or all of the features/functionality provided by existingdatabase client APIs (e.g., VoltDB client API, etc.) that are suitablefor use in identifying data storage locations.

In various embodiments, the router 610 component may use the client APImodule to route messages to, and store information in, a specificpartition/shard of an elastic database 704 that is associated with anapplication server node 612 tasked with processing that message. Theapplication server node 612 may then pull the relevant data from itsassociated elastic database 704. In these embodiments, data locality isachieved or improved because the application server node 612 processesrequests from its associated elastic database 704 in the same logicalscalable unit or module 804 and/or via the use of local or loopbackcommunications. Further, in these embodiments, the elastic database 704may act as a proxy between the router 610 component and the applicationserver node 612. As such, the database layer is effectively situatedbetween the router layer and the application layer (i.e., due to theinformation flowing from the router to the database, and then to theapplication). This logical organization of layers, components and/orfunctionality may be accomplished in part because the system 800includes a combined application, database, and storage layer 802. In anembodiment, this combined layer 802 may further include the router 610component.

In an embodiment, the router 610 component may be configured to performlearning or prediction operations to determine the location of aspecific partition/shard of the elastic database 704 in which datacorresponding to a subscriber or group of subscribers is stored. Forexample, the router 610 may monitor the scaling operations in the system800, and collect heuristics and/or compute statistics regarding themonitored operations, such as the number of logical scalable units(i.e., modules 804) in the system before scale out, the number oflogical scalable units or modules 804 in the system after scale out,when the scale out occurred, the duration of the scaling operations, thenumber of data retrieval misses before and/or after scaling, etc. Basedon these heuristics and/or statistic values, the router 610 may predictwhich data units or data keys have been moved during the scalingoperations and/or to which logical scalable units (i.e., modules 804)the data is most likely to have been moved.

Generally, components in a telecommunication network may be responsiblefor receiving, processing, and communicating many different types ofmessages and message formats. Not all of these different message typesinclude a unique, common, or uniform identifier (e.g., IP address, etc.)that is suitable for use in identifying a specific database record(e.g., a record for a specific session, subscriber, group ofsubscribers, etc.). As a result, each component may be required toperform additional operations to determine whether a data record isassociated with the same subscriber identified in a message. For theseand other reasons, the data may be stored in the databases inassociation with both a primary key and one or more secondary keys.However, in many horizontally scalable databases (e.g., elastic database704, etc.), data is shard/partitioned using only the primary key.Consequently, data access times are typically much greater when using asecondary key to locate a database record (i.e., as opposed to theprimary key to locate the database record).

The various embodiments include methods, and systems and servercomputing devices configured to implement the methods, of organizingdata in an elastic database so as to reduce the number of secondary keylookups that are required to identify specific data records when readingor writing information to and from a database (e.g., elastic database704, etc.). In various embodiments, the data may be organized via asingle common key method or via an independent key method.

FIGS. 9A-12B illustrate various embodiment methods of processingcommunication messages in a high-speed, highly available, andelastically scalable telecommunication system. Specifically, FIGS. 9A,10A, 11A, and 12A illustrate embodiment methods of processing an initialGx message, and FIGS. 9B, 10B, 11B, and 12B illustrate embodimentmethods of processing a subsequent Rx message after the system has beenscaled. For ease of reference, these methods are discussed usingspecific Diameter message formats and terminology. However, it should beunderstood that such references are for illustrative purposes only, andare not intended to limit the scope of the claims to a particularmessage type, communication, network or technology unless specificallyrecited in the claim language.

FIG. 9A illustrates an example system method 900 of processing a requestmessage using a combination of a common key routing (CKR) method and adata locality table (DLT) method to achieve data locality and reducesecondary key lookups in accordance with an embodiment. The illustratedsystem method 900 may be performed by various components (e.g., router,application, etc.) in a high-speed, highly available, elasticallyscalable telecommunication system 800.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9A, the system method 900 isperformed in system 800 includes a routing layer 602 and a combinedapplication, database, and storage layer 802. The combined layer 802 mayinclude a plurality of logical scalable units or modules (S1-Sn), eachof which include an application component (PCRF1-PCRFn) and an elasticdatabase partition (P1-Pn). The routing layer 602 may include a router610 component that stores, includes, or otherwise has read/write accessto a data locality table 902.

In various embodiments, the data locality table 902 may be a table, map,hash table, nested hash table, or similar data structure. The datalocality table 902 may store a mapping of key values to the applications(PCRF1-PCRFn) associated with the data or to the logical scalable units(S1-Sn). The data locality table 902 may store a single unique surrogatekey (SK) for each subscriber or group of subscribers, and thesesurrogate keys may be the primary index key to records stored in thedata locality table 902.

In an embodiment, the data locality table 902 may be included in asurrogate key table. In another embodiment, the data locality table 902may include a surrogate key table. In a further embodiment, each of thesurrogate key tables may be a hash table. Each logical scalable unit 804may include multiple data locality tables 902, and each data localitytable 902 may be distributed or replicated on multiple logical scalableunits 804. Each record in each data locality table 902 may storereferences to more than one logical scalable unit 804. For example, eachrecord in the data locality table 902 may contain a field identifyingthe primary application (PCRF1-PCRFn) associated with the data or thelogical scalable unit (S1-Sn), a field identifying a secondaryapplication (PCRF1-PCRFn) associated with the data or a logical scalableunit (S1-Sn) that provides rack-level redundancy, and a fieldidentifying a tertiary application (PCRF1-PCRFn) associated with thedata or a logical scalable unit (S1-Sn) that provides data centre levelredundancy, etc.

In operation 904 of method 900, the router 610 component may receive aGx CCR-I request message (Request X) that includes a Mobile SubscriberIntegrated Services Digital Network Number (MSISDN) field, aFrame-IPAddress (FIA) field (e.g., the IPv4 or IPv6 address associatedwith the subscriber), and Access-Point-Name (APN) field (e.g., from theCalled-Station-ID). The value of the MSISDN field may uniquely identifya subscriber or a group of subscribers, and a combination of the valuesstored in the FIA and APN fields (herein FIA+APN) may also uniquelyidentify the subscriber or group.

In operation 906, the router 610 component may access or query the datalocality table 902 via a local or loopback communication 903 todetermine the location of subscriber data (e.g., SPR, balances, sessioninformation, etc.) based on the contents of the received Gx CCR-Irequest message (Request X), and a generated surrogate key. For example,in operation 906, the router 610 component may use the subscriberidentifiers (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN) of the received message (Request X)to generate a surrogate key, and use the surrogate key to access thedata locality table 902 to determine which of the logical scalable units(S1-Sn) 804 includes an application (PCRF1-PCRFn) associated withinformation corresponding to a subscriber identified in the receivedrequest message (Request X).

In an embodiment, generating the surrogate key may include using thevalue of the MSISDN field of the received request message (Request X) asthe generated surrogate key. For example, in an embodiment, theunmodified MSISDN value may be used as a surrogate key. In otherembodiments, generating the surrogate key may include performing a hashfunction, algorithm, or operation that includes generating a hash valueor code by using the MSISDN value as an input or key to a hash function.For example, if the value of the MSISDN field is “3539876542,” therouter 610 component may perform hash operations to generate a surrogatekey value of “112” (i.e., SK (MSISDN=3539876542)=112). This surrogatekey value (i.e., 112) may itself be a key to a bucket or value (e.g., S2or PCRF 2) of the data locality table 902.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9A, in operation 906, the router 610component may use the generated surrogate key (e.g., 112) to retrieve arecord from the data locality table that identifies the logical scalableunit (S2) or application component (i.e., PCRF2) associated with thedata corresponding to the subscriber identified in the request message(Request X).

In operation 908, the router 610 component may update or insert mappingsinto a surrogate key table and/or data locality table associated with adifferent message or message type (e.g., Rx, Gxa, etc.) via alocal/loopback communication 903. For example, the router 610 componentmay update or insert mappings of the FIA+APN value, the generatedsurrogate key value (e.g., 112), and the determined data location (e.g.,S2 or PCRF2) into a surrogate key table associated with an Rx messagetype. This surrogate key table may be used by the router 610 to locatesubscriber data for a subsequent communication message, such as asubsequent Rx Authentication Authorization Request (AAR) message.

In operation 910, the router 610 component may route/send the message(Request X) to an application (PCRF2) in the logical scalable unit ormodule 804 determined to include the elastic database partition (P2)that stores information (e.g., SPR, balances, session, etc.)corresponding to the subscriber.

In operation 912, the application (PCRF2) may receive the message(Request X), and store information corresponding to the received message(e.g., session information) in the associated elastic database partition(i.e., P2) via a local/loopback communication 903.

In operation 914, the application (PCRF2) may query/request subscriberdata (e.g., SPR, balances, session, etc.) from the associated elasticdatabase partition (i.e., P2) via a local/loopback communication 903.

In operation 916, the local elastic database partition (P2) may send thesubscriber data to its associated application (i.e., PCRF2) via a localor loopback communication 903.

In operation 918, the application component (PCRF2) may perform variouspolicy and/or charging operations, generate a Credit Control Answer(CCA) Gx response message, and send the generated CCA Gx message to therouter 610 component.

In operation 920, the router 610 component may receive and route the CCAGx message to the appropriate component or system in thetelecommunication network.

The performance of system method 900 by the various components (e.g.,router, applications, etc.) in the system 800 improves the system's 800overall efficiency and responsiveness by reducing the number ofsynchronous remote communications that must be performed when processingcommunication messages. For example, when implementing system method900, the system 800 only incurs a performance penalty of four (4) remotesynchronous communications (in operations 904, 910, 918, and 920) whenprocessing a Gx request message. Since local/loopback communications aremuch less expensive than remote synchronous communications, configuringthe components to perform system method 900 improves the performance,efficiency, and responsiveness of the entire system 800.

The performance of system method 900 may include the use of a common keyrouting method, which may allow all of the session information relatedto a common key to be stored in a single entry in the session store.This in turn allows the system method 900 to be performed by componentsin a system that includes elastically scalable No-SQL databases.

FIG. 9B illustrates another example system method 950 of processing arequest message using a combination of a common key routing (CKR) methodand a data locality table (DLT) method. System method 950 may beperformed by components in the system 800 after the performance of thesystem method 900 illustrated in FIG. 9A, after the system 800 has beenscaled, and in response to the router 610 component receiving asubsequent request message (e.g., Rx AAR request message). Morespecifically, in the example illustrated in FIG. 9B, the system method950 is performed after the logical scalable units have been scaled toinclude Sm logical scalable units (where Sm is greater than Sn), thesubscriber data previously stored in the in the second partition (P2)contained in the second logical scalable unit (S2) has been moved to thetwelfth partition (P12) contained in the twelfth logical scalable unit(S12), and the data locality table 902 and surrogate keys have beenupdated to reflect the new data locations (S12 or PCRF12).

In operation 954 of method 950, the router 610 component may receive anRx AAR message for a new Rx session (Request Y) that includes FIA+APNfield that identifies a subscriber (or group of subscribers) and/or asession identifier. That is, in operation 954 the router 610 componentmay receive a communication message that identifies thesubscriber/session via a different field, value, or identifier as thatwhich is used by the communication message (Request X) received inoperation 904 of method 900.

In operation 956 of method 950, the router 610 component may query adata locality table 902 via local or loopback communications 903. Forexample, the router 610 component may use the FIA+APN value to retrievethe common surrogate key, and use the common surrogate key to retrieve arecord from the data locality table 902, and determine which of thelogical scalable units (S1-Sm) 804 includes an application (PRF1-PCRFm)that is associated with information corresponding to the subscriberidentified in the received message (Request Y) based on the retrievedrecord. Since, in this example, the data locality table 902 has beenupdated after the scaling operations, querying data locality table 902using the common surrogate key (112) will return a data location of“S12” or “PCRF12”.

In operation 958, the router 610 component may route/send the Rx AAR-Irequest message (Request Y) to the application (PCRF12) in the logicalscalable unit or module 804 determined to be associated with the elasticdatabase partition (P12) that stores information corresponding to thesubscriber identified in the request message (Request Y). Alternatively,the router 610 component may generate a new communication message basedon information included in the Rx AAR-I request message (Request Y), andsend this new communication message to the application (PCRF12).

In operation 960, the application (PCRF12) may receive the message(Request Y), and store information corresponding to the received message(e.g., session information) in the corresponding elastic databasepartition (P12) via a local or loopback communication 903.

In operation 962, the application may query/request subscriber data(e.g., SPR, balances, session, etc.) from its associated elasticdatabase partition (P12) via a local or loopback communication 903.

In operation 964, the elastic database partition (P12) may send thesubscriber data to the application (PCRF12) via a local or loopbackcommunication 903.

In operation 966, the application (PCRF2) may perform various policyand/or charging operations, generate an Authentication AuthorizationAnswer (AAA) Rx message, and send the generated AAA Rx message to therouter 610 component.

In operation 968, the router 610 component may route the AAA Rx messageto the appropriate component or system in the telecommunication network.

Configuring the various components (e.g., router, database, application,etc.) to perform system method 950 improves the system's 800 overallefficiency and responsiveness by reducing the number of synchronousremote communications that must be performed when processingcommunication messages. For example, when implementing system method950, the system 800 only incurs a performance penalty of four (4) remotesynchronous communications (i.e., in operations 954, 958, 966, and 968).All other communication and interactions between the components areaccomplished via local or loopback communications. Since suchlocal/loopback communications are faster and less expensive than remotesynchronous communications, configuring the components to perform systemmethod 950 improves the performance, efficiency and responsiveness ofthe entire system 800.

FIG. 10A illustrates an example system method 1000 of processing arequest message using a combination of a common key routing (CKR) methodand a database proxy architecture (DPA) method to achieve data localityand reduce secondary key lookups in accordance with an embodiment. Thesystem method 1000 may be performed by components in a system 800 havinga combined layer 802 that includes a plurality of logical scalable unitsor modules 804 (S1-Sn), each of which includes an application(PCRF1-PCRFn) and an elastic database partition (P1-Pn). The router 610component includes a client API module (not illustrated) configured toidentify an elastic database partition (P1-Pn) that stores a particulardatabase record based on a key value. The client API module may alsoinclude a database API that allows the router component to read andwrite information in the elastic database partitions (P1-Pn). In variousembodiments, the router 610 component may be in a routing layer 602 orin the combined layer 802.

In operation 1004 of method 1000, the router 610 component may receive aGx CCR-I request message (Request X) that includes all the identifiers(e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN, etc.). In operation 1006, the router 610component may use the value of the FIA+APN field to generate a surrogatekey (e.g., via a hash operation), and store a mapping of the FIA+APNvalue to the generated surrogate key in an “Rx message SK table” 1002via a local or loopback communication 903.

In operation 1008, the router 610 component may identify (e.g., via theclient API module) the elastic database partition (P2) that isassociated with an application (PCRF2) tasked with processing the Gxrequest message (Request X) and/or which stores subscriber data suitablefor use in processing the Gx request message (Request X). The router 610component may identify the correct database partition (P2) using thegenerated surrogate key.

In operation 1010, the router 610 component may store (e.g., via theclient API module) the Gx request message (Request X) in the identifiedelastic database partition (P2). In an embodiment, the router 610component may also store the generated surrogate key in the identifiedelastic database partition (P2). In an embodiment, the router 610component may store the generated surrogate key as a primary index keyto the database record that includes the Gx request message (Request X).

In operation 1012, the application (PCRF2) may poll a local requesttable, retrieve the next request in the request table for processing,and process the retrieved request. In an embodiment, operation 1012 maybe performed concurrently with operation 1010. That is, the application(PCRF2) may continue to process other request messages while informationis being written to its associated database partition (P2).

In operation 1014, the application (PCRF2) polls the local requesttable, determines that the next message in the local request table isthe Gx request message (Request X), and pulls the Gx request message(Request X) and subscriber data from its associated elastic databasepartition (P2) via local/loopback communications 903.

In operation 1016, the application (PCRF2) may perform various policyand/or charging operations based on the retrieved subscriberdata/message, generate a CCA Gx message, and send the generated CCA Gxmessage to the router 610 component.

In operation 1018, the router 610 component may route the CCA Gx messageto the appropriate component or system in the telecommunication network.

Configuring the various components (e.g., router, database, application,etc.) to perform system method 1000 improves the efficiency andresponsiveness of the telecommunication system 800 by reducing thenumber of remote synchronous communications or hops that are performedwhen processing a Gx request message (Request X). For example, whenimplementing system method 1000, the system 800 only incurs aperformance penalty of four (4) remote synchronous communications (i.e.,in operations 1004, 1010, 1016, and 1018). Further, system method 1000is an asynchronous message routing solution since the router does notcommunicate directly with the applications, and is therefore notrequired to block or wait for response messages from the applicationcomponents. This allows these components to perform certain operationsconcurrently or in parallel to further improve the speed and efficiencyof the system 800.

In addition, the performance of system method 1000 does not require thatthe system 800 include a data locality table and/or maintain datastorage locations in a routing layer component. Rather, the router 610component may use the generated surrogate key and client API module toinsert the request messages directly into the correct elastic databasepartition.

FIG. 10B illustrates another example system method 1050 of processing arequest message using a combination of a common key routing (CKR) methodand a database proxy architecture (DPA) method to achieve data localityand reduce secondary key lookups. System method 1050 may be performed bycomponents in the system 800 after the performance of the system method1000 illustrated in FIG. 10A, after the system 800 has been scaled sothat the subscriber data previously stored in the second partition (P2)has been moved to the twelfth partition (P12).

In operation 1054, the router 610 component may receive an Rx AAR-Irequest message (Request Y) that includes FIA+APN field identifying thesubscriber (or group of subscribers). That is, in operation 1054 therouter 610 component may receive a communication message that identifiesthe subscriber via a different field, value, or identifier as that whichis used by the communication message (Request X) received in operation1004 of method 1000.

In operation 1056, the router 610 component may use the value of theFIA+APN field to retrieve the common surrogate key from the “Rx messageSK table” 1002 via a local or loopback communication 903.

In operation 1058, the router 610 component may use the common surrogatekey to identify (i.e., via the client API module) the elastic databasepartition (P12) that is associated with an application (PCRF12) taskedwith processing the request message (Request Y) and/or which storesinformation corresponding to the subscriber identified in the requestmessage (Request Y). In operation 1060, the router 610 component maystore the request message (Request Y) in the identified elastic databasepartition (P12) via the client API module.

In operation 1062, the application (PCRF12) may poll a local requesttable, determine that the next message in the local request table is theRx request message (Request Y), and pull the Rx message (Request Y)and/or subscriber data from the associated elastic database partition(P12) via local/loopback communications 903. In operation 1064, theapplication (PCRF12) may process the Rx message (Request Y) byperforming various policy and/or charging operations, generate an AAA Rxmessage, and send the generated AAA Rx message to the router 610component. In operation 1066, the router 610 component may route the AAARx message to the appropriate component or system in thetelecommunication network.

Configuring the various components (e.g., router, database, application,etc.) to perform system method 1050 improves the efficiency andresponsiveness of the telecommunication system 800 by reducing thenumber of remote synchronous communications or hops that are performedwhen processing communication message (Request Y). For example, whenimplementing system method 1050, the system 800 only incurs aperformance penalty of four (4) remote synchronous communications (i.e.,in operations 1054, 1060, 1064, and 1066). Further, the performance ofsystem method 1050 does not require that the system 800 include a datalocality table and/or maintain data storage locations in a routing layercomponent. Rather, the router 610 component may use the common surrogatekey and client API module to insert the request messages directly intothe correct database partitions. In addition, system method 1050 is anasynchronous message routing solution since the router component doesnot communicate directly with the application components, and istherefore not required to block or wait for response messages from theapplication components.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example system method 1100 of processing arequest message using a combination of an independent key routing (IKR)method and a data locality table (DLT) method to reduce secondary keylookups in accordance with an embodiment. System method 1100 may beperformed by components in a high-speed, highly available, elasticallyscalable telecommunication system 800 in which subscriber data for asingle subscriber (or a single group of subscribers) is partitionedacross multiple database partitions (P1-Pn).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 11A, the system 800 includes a router610 component that stores, includes, or otherwise has read/write accessto a data locality table 902. The data locality table 902 may storeinformation suitable for identifying one or more logical scalable unitsassociated with information (e.g., SPR, balances, session, etc.)corresponding to a single subscriber (or a single group of subscribers).For example, the data locality table 902 may store information suitablefor identifying a first logical scalable unit (e.g., S2) that includes aGx session store associated with a subscriber and a second logicalscalable unit (e.g., S3) that includes an Rx session store associatedwith the same subscriber. In addition, the router 610 component may beincluded in the combined layer 802 and/or the data locality table 902may be replicated or otherwise made accessible to the applicationcomponents (PCRF1-n).

In operation 1104 of method 1100, the router 610 component may receive aGx CCR-I request message (Request X) that includes all the identifiersfor a subscriber (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN, etc), and generate a pluralityof surrogate keys.

In an embodiment, the router 610 component may generate a surrogate keyvalue for each of a plurality of message types (e.g., Gx, Rx, etc.)based on the subscriber identifying values (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN, etc.)included in the received Gx request message (Request X). For example,the router 610 component may generate a Gx surrogate key value (SKGx)using the MSISDN value of the received message (Request X), and an Rxsurrogate key value (SKRx) using the FIA+APN value of the receivedmessage (Request X). In an embodiment, the router 610 component maygenerate the SKGx and SKRx values so that no two SKRx values are thesame, and so that no two SKGx values are the same.

In an embodiment, the router 610 component may generate the surrogatekey values (e.g., SKGx, SKRx, etc.) by performing hash operations tofunctions. In this embodiment, the performance of method 1100 is notcontingent on the system 800 including a single or centralized surrogatekey table. By eliminating the requirement for and/or the use of a singlesurrogate key table, system method 1100 may reduce the potential forrace conditions, contention issues, or other database errors occurringin the system 800 when processing/routing the communication message(Request X).

In operation 1106, the router 610 component may access or query the datalocality table 902 via a local or loopback communication 903, using thegenerated Gx surrogate key value (SKGx) to retrieve a record identifyinga logical scalable unit (S2) or application (PCRF2) that is associatedwith an elastic database partition (P2) that includes the Gx sessionstore/memory associated with the subscriber identified in the receivedGx request message (Request X).

In operation 1108, the router 610 component may send the Gx requestmessage (Request X) and the generated surrogate keys (SKGx and SKRx) tothe identified application (PCRF 2).

In operation 1110, the application (PCRF 2) may store the received Gxrequest message (Request X) in the associated partition (P2) via alocal/loopback communication 903.

In operation 1112, the application (PCRF 2) may use the Rx surrogate key(SKRx) to identify the elastic database partition (i.e., P3) thatincludes the Rx session store/memory, and store the received Gxsurrogate key (SKGx) as a record in the Rx session store/memory of theidentified partition (P3).

In operation 1114, the application (PCRF 2) may query the associatedpartition (P2) for subscriber data, including SPR and balanceinformation, via a local/loopback communication 903. In an embodiment,operations 1112 and 1114 may be performed concurrently.

In operation 1116, the elastic database partition (P2) may send therequested subscriber information (e.g., SPR and balance information) toits associated application (PCRF 2) via a local/loopback communication903. In an embodiment, operations 1112 and 1116 may be performedconcurrently.

In operation 1118, the application (PCRF 2) may receive subscriber datafrom its associated elastic database partition (P2), process the requestmessage (Request X) by performing various policy and/or chargingoperations, generate a new message (e.g., CCA Gx message) and send thegenerated message to the router 610 component. In an embodiment,operations 1112 and 1118 may be performed concurrently.

In operation 1120, the router 610 component may receive and route themessage (e.g., CCA Gx message) to the appropriate component or system inthe telecommunication network.

The performance of system method 1100 by the various components (e.g.,router, applications, etc.) in the telecommunication system 800 improvesthe system's 800 overall efficiency and responsiveness by reducing thenumber of synchronous remote communications that must be performed whenprocessing communication messages (e.g., Request X). For example, whenimplementing system method 1100, the system 800 only incurs aperformance penalty of four (4) remote synchronous communications (i.e.,in operations 1104, 1108, 1118, and 1120) when processing a Gx requestmessage. Since local/loopback communications are much less expensivethan remote synchronous communications, configuring the components toperform system method 1100 improves the performance, efficiency, andresponsiveness of the entire system 800.

Further, when routing messages using system method 1100, certaindatabase read/write operations (e.g., operation 1112) may be performedin parallel with the message processing or generation operations (e.g.,operation 1118), which further improves the speed and efficiency of thesystem 800.

In addition, when performing system method 1100, the system 800 does notexperience any of the latencies typically associated with writinginformation to a centralized surrogate key tables, and these tablescannot become a point of contention or a source of database errors whenthe routing layer is scaled or additional routers are included in thesystem 800.

FIG. 11B illustrates another example system method 1150 of processing arequest message using a combination of an independent key routing (IKR)method and a data locality table (DLT) method to reduce the number ofsecondary key lookups. System method 1150 may be performed by componentsin the system 800 after the performance of the system method 1100illustrated in FIG. 11A, after the system 800 has been scaled so thatthe subscriber data previously stored in the second partition (P2)contained in the second logical scalable unit (S2) has been moved to thetwelfth partition (P12) contained in the twelfth logical scalable unit(S12), and after the data locality table 902 has been updated to reflectthe new data locations for the Gx session stores (S12 or P12).

In operation 1154, the router 610 component may receive an AAR Rxrequest message (Request Y) that includes FIA+APN field, and generate asurrogate key based on the value of the FIA+APN field.

In operation 1156, the router 610 component may query the data localitytable 902 via a local or loopback communication 903, using the generatedsurrogate key to retrieve a record identifying the logical scalable unit(S3) that includes the Rx session store that is associated with thesubscriber identified in the received Rx request message (Request Y).

In operation 1158, the router 610 component may send the Rx requestmessage (Request Y) to the application (PCRF3) associated with theidentified logical scalable unit (S3).

In operation 1160, the application (PCRF3) may store the Rx requestmessage (Request Y) in its associated partition (P3) via alocal/loopback communication 903.

In operation 1162, the application (PCRF3) may retrieve/pull the Gxsurrogate key (SKGx) (which was stored as part of performance ofoperation 1112) and Rx session information from the Rx session store ofits associated elastic database partition (P3) via a local/loopbackcommunication 903.

In operation 1164, the application (PCRF3) may use the retrieved Gxsurrogate key (SKGx) to identify the database partition (P12) to whichthe Gx session store of the subscriber identified in the Rx requestmessage (Request Y) was moved during the scaling operations. This may beaccomplished by the application component (PCRF3) accessing a local datalocality table or using a local client API module, similar to that whichis described above with reference to the router 610 component.

In operation 1166, the application (PCRF3) may query the Gx sessionstore in the database partition (P12) that includes the Gx session storeand/or subscriber data (e.g., SPR and balances).

In operation 1168, the application (PCRF3) may receive subscriber datafrom the identified database partition (P12).

In operation 1170, the application (PCRF3) may store updated informationin the Gx session store in the identified database partition (P12).

In operation 1172, the application (PCRF3) may process the requestmessage (Request Y) using the subscriber data received from theidentified database partition (P12), perform various policy and/orcharging operations, generate an AAA Rx message, and send the generatedAAA Rx message to the router 610 component. In an embodiment, operations1170 and 1172 may be performed concurrently or in parallel.

In operation 1174, the router 610 component may route the AAA Rx messageto the appropriate component or system in the telecommunication network.

The performance of system method 1150 by the various components (e.g.,router, applications, etc.) in the telecommunication system 800 improvesthe system's 800 overall efficiency and responsiveness by reducing thenumber of synchronous remote communications that must be performed whenprocessing communication messages (e.g., Request Y). For example, whenimplementing system method 1150, the system 800 only incurs aperformance penalty of six (6) remote synchronous communications (i.e.,in operations 1154, 1158, 1166, 1168, 1172, and 1174) when processing anRx request message.

Further, in system method 1150, certain database read/write operations(e.g., operation 1170) may be performed in parallel with the messageprocessing or generation operations (e.g., operation 1172), whichimproves the speed and efficiency of the system 800.

In addition, when performing system method 1150, the system 800 does notexperience any of the latencies typically associated with writinginformation to a centralized surrogate key tables, and these tablescannot become a point of contention or a source of database errors whenthe routing layer is scaled or additional routers are included in thesystem 800.

FIG. 12A illustrates an example system method 1200 of processing arequest message using a combination of an independent key routing (IKR)method and a database proxy architecture (DPA) method to reducesecondary key lookups in accordance with an embodiment. System method1200 may be performed by components in a high-speed, highly available,elastically scalable telecommunication system 800 in which subscriberdata for a single subscriber (or a single group of subscribers) ispartitioned across multiple database partitions (P1-Pn). The system 800may also include a router 610 component having a client API (notillustrated) configured to identify an elastic database partition(P1-Pn) that stores a particular database record based on a key value.The client API module may also include a database API that allows therouter component to read and write information in the elastic databasepartitions (P1-Pn). In various embodiments, the router 610 component maybe in a routing layer 602 or in the combined layer 802.

In operation 1204 of method 1200, the router 610 component may receive aGx CCR-I request message (Request X) that includes a MSISDN field and aFIA+APN field.

In operation 1206, the router 610 component may generate a Gx surrogatekey value (SKGx) using the MSISDN value and an Rx surrogate key value(SKRx) using the FIA+APN value. In an embodiment, the router 610component may be configured to generate the SKGx and SKRx values so thatno two SKRx values are the same, and so no two SKGx values are the same.

In operation 1208, the router 610 component may identify (e.g., via theclient API module) a first elastic database partition (P2) that isassociated with a application (PCRF 2) tasked with processing therequest message (Request X) and/or which stores information (e.g.,subscriber data) needed to process the request message (Request X). Alsoin operation 1208, the router 610 component may identify (e.g., via theclient API module) a second elastic database partition (P3) thatincludes an Rx session store for the subscriber.

In operation 1210, the router 610 component may store the Gx requestmessage (Request X) and the Gx surrogate key (SKGx) in the first elasticdatabase partition (P2) via the client API module.

In operation 1212, the router 610 component may store the Gx surrogatekey (SKGx) in the second elastic database partition (P3). In anembodiment, operations 1210 and 1212 may be performed concurrently.

In operation 1214, the application (PCRF 2) associated with the firstelastic database partition (P2) may retrieve/pull the request message(Request X) and subscriber data (e.g., SPR, balance, etc.) from itsassociated elastic database partition (P2) via a local/loopbackcommunication 903. In an embodiment, if the application component (PCRF2) determines that there is a shared balance, the application (PCRF 2)may generate a hash for the shared balance, use the generated hash tolocate the remote database partition that stores relevant subscriberdata, and pull the subscriber data (e.g., balance information) from theremote database partition.

In operation 1216, the application (PCRF 2) associated with the firstelastic database partition (P2) may process the request message (RequestX), perform various policy and/or charging operations using thesubscriber data, generate an CCA Gx message, and send the generated CCAGx message to the router 610 component.

In operation 1218, the router 610 component may receive and route themessage (e.g., CCA Gx message) to the appropriate component or system inthe telecommunication network.

Configuring the various components (e.g., router, database, application,etc.) to perform system method 1200 improves the efficiency andresponsiveness of the telecommunication system 800 by reducing thenumber of remote synchronous communications or hops that are performedwhen processing a communication message (e.g., Request X). For example,when implementing system method 1200, the system 800 only incurs aperformance penalty of four (4) remote synchronous communications (i.e.,in operations 1204, 1210, 1216, and 1218) when processing a Gx message.

Further, the performance of system method 1200 does not require that thesystem 800 include a data locality table and/or maintain data storagelocations in a routing layer component. Rather, the router 610 componentmay use the Rx and Gx surrogate keys and client API module to insert theinformation directly into the elastic database partitions.

FIG. 12B illustrates another example system method 1250 of processing arequest message using an independent key routing (IKR) method and adatabase proxy architecture (DPA) method to reduce secondary keylookups. System method 1250 may be performed by components in the system800 after the performance of the system method 1200 illustrated in FIG.12A, after the system 800 has been scaled so that the subscriber datapreviously stored in the second partition (P2) has been moved to thetwelfth partition (P12).

In operation 1254, the router 610 component may receive an Rx AAR-Irequest message (Request Y) that includes FIA+APN field.

In operation 1256, the router 610 component may use the value of theFIA+APN field to generate an Rx surrogate key (SKRx).

In operation 1258, the router 610 component may use the client API (notillustrated) to identify the elastic database partition (P3) thatincludes an Rx session store for the subscriber, and store the requestmessage (Request Y) and generated Rx surrogate key (SKRx) in theidentified database partition (P3).

In operation 1260, the application (PCRF 3) associated with the databasepartition (P3) may retrieve/pull the Rx request message (Request Y) andGx surrogate key (SKGx) value from the database partition (P3) vialocal/loopback communications 903.

In operation 1262, the application (PCRF 3) may use the Gx surrogate key(SKGx) value to identify the elastic database partition (P12) to whichthe subscriber data was moved during the scaling operations, and requesta Gx session data and subscriber data (e.g., SPR, balance information,etc.) from the database partition (P12).

In operation 1264, the application (PCRF 3) may receive the Gx sessiondata and subscriber data from the database partition (P12).

In operation 1266, the application (PCRF 3) may use the subscriber datato process the request message (Request Y) by performing various policyand/or charging operations, generate an AAA Rx message, and send thegenerated AAA Rx message and a Gx Re-Authorization Request (RAR) to therouter 610 component.

In operation 1268, the router 610 component may receive and route theAAA Rx message to the appropriate component or system in thetelecommunication network.

Configuring the various components (e.g., router, database, application,etc.) to perform system method 1250 improves the efficiency andresponsiveness of the telecommunication system 800 by reducing thenumber of remote synchronous communications or hops that are performedwhen processing an Rx request message (Request Y). For example, whenimplementing system method 1250, the system 800 only incurs aperformance penalty of six (6) remote synchronous communications (i.e.,in operations 1254, 1258, 1262, 1264, 1266, and 1268).

Further, the performance of system method 1250 does require that thesystem 800 include a data locality table and/or maintain data storagelocations in a routing layer component. Rather, the router 610 componentmay use the Rx and Gx surrogate keys and client API module to insert theinformation directly into the correct elastic database partitions.

FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment CKR-DLT method 1300 of processing arequest message. The CKR-DLT method 1300 may be performed by components(e.g., server computing devices, processors, processes, etc.) in ahigh-speed, highly available, elastically scalable telecommunicationsystem 800.

In block 1302, a router processor in a multiprocessor computing systemmay receive a first communication message (e.g., Gx message) thatincludes subscriber identifiers (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN, etc.) thatuniquely identify a subscriber. In various embodiments, themultiprocessor computing system may be a multicore processor, a systemon a chip, a multi-processor server computing device, a server blade, aserver rack, a datacenter, a cloud computing system, a distributedcomputing system, etc.

In block 1304, the router processor may generate a common surrogate keybased on the subscriber identifiers included in the first communicationmessage. In block 1306, the router processor may query a data localitytable and use the common surrogate key to retrieve information suitablefor use in identifying a first logical scalable unit that includes afirst database component that stores subscriber data that relates to theidentified subscriber. Alternatively, in block 1306, the routerprocessor may use the common surrogate key to retrieve informationsuitable for use in identifying a first application component that isclosely coupled to the first database component.

In block 1308, the router processor may send the first communicationmessage to a first application processor in the multiprocessor computingsystem that includes or is closely coupled to the first logical scalableunit, the first application component, and/or the first databasecomponent.

In block 1310, the first application processor may receive the firstcommunication message in the first application component, retrievesubscriber data from the first database component, process the firstcommunication message using the subscriber data, generate a secondcommunication message, and send the second communication message to therouter processor. In block 1312, the router processor may receive thesecond communication message and route the second communication messageto another component or sub-system in the telecommunication network.

In block 1314, the router processor may receive communication messagesthat include information suitable for updating one or more data localitytables of one or more router components. In an embodiment, the routerprocessor may receive the communication messages in response tosubscriber data being moved between database components or partitionsand/or in response to the telecommunication system being scaled. Invarious embodiments, the router processor may receive thesecommunication messages from the first database component, themultiprocessor computing system, or the first logical scalable unit.

In block 1316, the router processor may receive a third communicationmessage (e.g., Rx Message) for the same subscriber, but which includes adifferent subscriber/session identifier and/or a subset of thepreviously received identifiers (e.g., FIA+APN, etc.). In block 1318,the router processor may identify the common surrogate key using thesubscriber identifier included in the third communication message.

In block 1320, the router processor may query a data locality table, anduse the common surrogate key to retrieve information that identifies asecond database component as storing the subscriber data previouslystored in the first database component. Alternatively, in block 320, therouter processor may use the common surrogate key to retrieveinformation suitable for use in identifying a second logical scalableunit that includes the second database component, or which is suitablefor use in identifying a second application component that is closelycoupled to the second database component.

In block 1322, the router processor may send the third communicationmessage to a second application processor in the multiprocessorcomputing system that includes or is closely coupled to the secondlogical scalable unit, the second application component, and/or thesecond database component.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment CKR-DPA method 1400 of processing arequest message. The CKR-DPA method 1400 may be performed by variouscomponents (e.g., server computing devices, processors, processes, etc.)in a high-speed, highly available, elastically scalabletelecommunication system 800.

In block 1402, a router processor in a multiprocessor computing systemmay receive a first communication message (e.g., Gx Message) thatincludes subscriber identifiers (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN, etc.) thatuniquely identify a subscriber. In various embodiments, themultiprocessor computing system may be a multicore processor, a systemon a chip, a multi-processor server computing device, a server blade, aserver rack, a datacenter, a cloud computing system, a distributedcomputing system, etc.

In block 1404, the router processor may generate a common surrogate keyfor all the subscriber identifiers included in the first communicationmessage, and store mappings of the subscriber identifiers to the commonsurrogate key in a surrogate key table. In an embodiment, the routerprocessor may store the surrogate key in a local memory coupled to therouter processor.

In block 1406, the router processor may use the common surrogate key toretrieve information that identifies a first database component/memoryas storing subscriber data associated with the identified subscriber. Inan embodiment, this may be accomplished via a client API and/or smart DBclient. In various embodiments, identifying the first database componentmay include, or may be accomplished by, identifying a first logicalscaling unit and/or a first application component that is closelycoupled to the first database component. In an embodiment, the firstdatabase component may be closely coupled to a first applicationprocessor. In an embodiment, the first application processor may also beclosely coupled to the first logical scaling unit and/or a firstapplication component.

In block 1408, the router processor may store the first communicationmessage in the first database component. In an embodiment, this may beaccomplished via a client API and/or smart DB client. In an embodiment,in block 1408, the router processor may use the client API to store thefirst communication message in a memory that is closely coupled to thefirst application processor, the first logical scaling unit, a firstapplication component, and/or the first database component.

In block 1410, the first application processor may update a requesttable stored in a local memory coupled to the first applicationcomponent. For example, the memory may be in the same datacenter, rack,computing device, chip, or core as the processor executing the firstapplication component (e.g., the first application processor). Inembodiment, the first application processor may update the request tableto store, or include a reference to, the first communication message.

In block 1412, the first application processor may poll the localrequest table and pull the first communication message and subscriberdata stored in the first database partition or memory. In block 1414,the first application processor may process the first communicationmessage using the subscriber data, generate a second communicationmessage, and send the second communication message to the routerprocessor.

In block 1416, the router processor may receive the second communicationmessage and route the second communication message to another system orcomponent in the telecommunication network.

In optional block 1418, the router processor may receive communicationmessages that include information suitable for updating the surrogatekey table values. In an embodiment, the router processor may receive thecommunication messages in response to subscriber data being movedbetween database components/partitions/memories and/or in response tothe telecommunication system being scaled. In various embodiments, therouter processor may receive these communication messages from the firstdatabase component, the multiprocessor computing system, or the firstlogical scalable unit.

In block 1420, the router processor may receive a third communicationmessage (e.g., Rx Message) for the same subscriber that includes adifferent subscriber/session identifiers or a subset of the previouslyreceived identifiers (e.g., FIA+APN, etc.). In block 1422, the routerprocessor may use value of subscriber identifier of the thirdcommunication message to retrieve the common surrogate key fromsurrogate key table.

In block 1424, the router processor may identify a second databasecomponent/memory that stores subscriber data for the subscriber via thecommon surrogate key, and store the third communication message in thesecond database component via the client API and/or smart DB client. Inan embodiment, the second database component may be included in the samecomponent (e.g., server computing device) or logical scalable unit asthe router processor. In another embodiment, the second databasepartition may be included in a different component or logical scalableunit as the router processor.

FIGS. 15A and 15B illustrate an embodiment IKR-DLT method 1500 ofprocessing a request message. The IKR-DLT method 1500 may be performedby various components (e.g., server computing devices, processors,processes, etc.) in a high-speed, highly available, elastically scalabletelecommunication system 800.

In block 1502 of FIG. 15A, a router processor in a multiprocessorcomputing system may receive a first communication message (e.g., GxMessage) that includes subscriber identifiers (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN,etc.) that uniquely identify a subscriber. In various embodiments, themultiprocessor computing system may be a multicore processor, a systemon a chip, a multi-processor server computing device, a server blade, aserver rack, a datacenter, a cloud computing system, a distributedcomputing system, etc.

In block 1504, the router processor may generate a surrogate key valuefor each of a plurality of message types (e.g., Gx, Rx, etc.) based onthe subscriber identifiers included in the first communication message.

In block 1506, the router processor may query a data locality tableusing a generated first surrogate key (e.g., SKGx) to retrieveinformation suitable for use in identifying a first logical scalableunit that includes a first database component that includes a firstsession store (e.g., a Gx session store) and/or stores subscriber datathat relates to the identified subscriber. Alternatively, in block 1506,the router processor may use the generated first surrogate key (SKGx) toretrieve information suitable for use in identifying a first applicationcomponent that is closely coupled to the first database component.

In block 1508, the router processor may send the first communicationmessage and generated surrogate keys (e.g., Rx and Gx surrogate keys) toa first application processor in the multiprocessor computing systemthat includes or is closely coupled to a first application component,the first logical scalable unit, and/or the first database component.

In block 1510, the first application processor may receive the firstcommunication message and surrogate keys (e.g., Rx and Gx surrogatekeys) in the first application component and store the received firstcommunication message in the first database component/partition/memory.

In block 1512, the first application processor may identify a seconddatabase component that includes a second session store (e.g., Rxsession store) that stores information for a different message type thanthat which is stored in the first session store. For example, the firstapplication processor may use the Rx surrogate key (SKRx) received fromthe router processor to determine that the second database componentsincludes an Rx session store that stores Rx information relating to thesubscriber.

In block 1514, the first application processor may store the receivedfirst surrogate key (SKGx) as a record in the second sessionstore/memory (e.g., Rx session store) of the second database component.In various embodiments, the router processor may store the firstsurrogate key in the second session store using a local or non-remote orasynchronous communication.

In block 1516, the first application processor may retrieve subscriberdata from the first database component, process the first communicationmessage using the subscriber data, generate a second communicationmessage, and send the second communication message the router processor.In block 1518, the router processor may receive the second communicationmessage in the router and route the second communication message toanother system

In block 1520 of FIG. 15B, the router processor may receivecommunication messages that include information suitable for updatingone or more data locality tables of one or more router components. In anembodiment, the router processor may receive the communication messagesin response to subscriber data being moved between database componentsor partitions and/or in response to the telecommunication system beingscaled. In various embodiments, the router processor may receive thesecommunication messages from the first database component, themultiprocessor computing system, or the first logical scalable unit.

In block 1522, the router processor may receive a third communicationmessage (e.g., Rx Message) for the same subscriber that includes adifferent subscriber identifier or a subset of the previously receivedsubscriber identifiers (e.g., FIA+APN, etc.). In block 1524, the routerprocessor may generate or identify the second surrogate key (e.g., SKRx)based on the subscriber identifier included in the third communicationmessage.

In block 1526, the router processor may use the generated secondsurrogate key (e.g., SKRx) to determine that the second databasecomponent includes the second session store/memory (e.g., Rx sessionstore), and that the second session store/memory includes informationrelated to the subscriber identified in the third communication message.Also in block, 1526, the router processor may use the generated secondsurrogate key (e.g., SKRx) to retrieve information suitable for use inidentifying a second application processor, a second logical scalableunit, and/or a second application component that is closely coupled tothe second database component.

In block 1528, the router processor may send the third communicationmessage and the generated second surrogate key (e.g., SKRx) to thesecond application processor, second logical scalable unit, and/orsecond application component.

In block 1530, the second application processor may retrieve the firstsurrogate key (e.g., SKGx) and session information (e.g., Rx sessioninformation) from the second session store/memory (e.g., Rx sessionstore) in the second database component/memory, and make thisinformation available for use by the second application component.

In block 1532, the second application processor and/or secondapplication component may use the retrieved first surrogate key (SKGx)to determine that the first session store/memory (e.g., Gx sessionstore) is now located in the third database component. In an embodiment,the third database component may be closely coupled to a thirdapplication processor in the multiprocessor system and/or to a thirdlogical scalable unit.

In block 1534, the second application processor may retrieve sessioninformation (e.g., Gx session information) and/or subscriber data fromthe first session store/memory (e.g., Gx session store) in the thirddatabase component/memory and make this information available to thesecond application. In block 1536, the second application processor mayprocess the third communication message using the subscriber data,generate a fourth communication message, and send the forthcommunication message to the router processor.

FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate an embodiment IKR-DPA method 1600 ofprocessing a request message. The IKR-DPA method 1600 may be performedby various components (e.g., server computing devices, processors,processes, etc.) in a high-speed, highly available, elastically scalabletelecommunication system 800.

In block 1602, a router processor in a multiprocessor computing systemmay receive a first communication message (e.g., Gx Message) thatincludes subscriber identifiers (e.g., MSISDN, FIA+APN, etc.) thatuniquely identify a subscriber. In various embodiments, themultiprocessor computing system may be a multicore processor, a systemon a chip, a multi-processor server computing device, a server blade, aserver rack, a datacenter, a cloud computing system, a distributedcomputing system, etc.

In block 1604, the router processor may generate a surrogate key valuefor each of a plurality of message types (e.g., Gx, Rx, etc.) based onthe subscriber identifiers included in the first communication message.

In block 1606, the router processor may use a generated first surrogatekey (e.g., SKGx) to identify a first database component that storessubscriber data. In an embodiment, this may be accomplished via a clientAPI and/or smart DB client. In an embodiment, identifying the firstdatabase component may include, or may be accomplished by, identifying afirst logical scalable unit and/or first application component that areclosely coupled to the first database component.

In block 1608, the router processor may store the first communicationmessage and generated first surrogate key (e.g., SKGx) in the firstdatabase component. In an embodiment, this may be accomplished via theclient API and/or smart DB client. In an embodiment, in block 1608, therouter processor may use the client API to store the first communicationmessage and generated first surrogate key (e.g., SKGx) in a memory thatis closely coupled to a first application processor in themultiprocessor computing system, the first logical scalable unit, thefirst application component, and/or the first database component.

In block 1610, the router processor may use a generated second surrogatekey (e.g., SKRx) to identify a second database component that includes asecond session store (e.g., Rx session store) that is associated withthe subscriber identified in the first communication message and whichstores information for a different message type (e.g., Rx message type)than that which is stored in the first session store. In an embodiment,this may be accomplished via the client API and/or smart DB client.

In block 1612, the router processor may store the first surrogate key(e.g., SKGx) in the second database component, which may also beaccomplished via the client API and/or smart DB client. In anembodiment, in block 1608, the router processor may use the client APIto store the first surrogate key (e.g., SKGx) in a memory that isclosely coupled to a second application processor in the multiprocessorsystem, a logical scalable unit, a second application component, and/orthe second database component.

In block 1614, the first application processor may update a requesttable stored in a local memory of the first application to include areference to the first communication message. In various embodiments,the local memory may be in the same datacenter, rack, computing device,chip, or core as the first application processor.

In block 1616, the first application processor may poll the localrequest table and determine that the next message in the request tableis the first communication message. Also in block 1616, the firstapplication processor may pull the first communication message andsubscriber data stored in the first database component or memory inresponse to determining that the next message in the table is the firstcommunication message. In block 1618, the first application processormay process the first communication message using the subscriber data,generate a second communication message, and send the secondcommunication message to the router processor. In block 1620, the routerprocessor may receive the second communication message and route thesecond communication message to another system or component in thetelecommunication network.

In block 1622, the router processor may receive a third communicationmessage (e.g., Rx Message) for the same subscriber that includes adifferent subscriber identifier or a subset of the previously receivedsubscriber identifiers (e.g., FIA+APN, etc.). In block 1624, the routerprocessor may identify or generate the second surrogate key (SKRx) basedon the subscriber identifier included in the third communicationmessage.

In block 1626, the router processor may use the second surrogate key(SKRx) to determine that a second database component stores subscriberdata for the subscriber identified in the third communication message.In block 1628, the router processor may store the third communicationmessage and second surrogate key (SKRx) in the second databasecomponent. In an embodiment, this may be accomplished via the client APIand/or smart DB client. The second database component may be closelycoupled to a second application processor of the multiprocessorcomputing system, a second logical scalable unit, and/or a secondapplication component.

In block 1630, the second application processor may update a requesttable stored in a memory that is closely coupled to the secondapplication component to include a reference to the third communicationmessage.

In block 1632, the second application processor may poll the localrequest table, determine that the next message in the table is the thirdcommunication message, and pull the third communication message andsecond surrogate key (SKRx) from the second database component/memoryand make this information available to the second application.

In block 1634, the second application processor may use the secondsurrogate key (SKRx) to identify a third database component to which thesubscriber data was moved during scaling operations. In an embodiment,the third database component may be closely coupled to a thirdapplication processor, a third logical scalable unit, and/or a thirdapplication component.

In block 1636, the second application processor may receive a firstsurrogate key (e.g., SKGx) and subscriber data from the third databasecomponent and make this information available to the second applicationcomponent. In block 1638, the second application processor may processthe third communication message using the subscriber data, generate afourth communication message, and send the fourth communication messagefrom the application to the router processor. In block 1640, the routerprocessor may receive the fourth communication message in the router androute the fourth communication message to another system in thetelecommunication network.

FIG. 17 illustrates an embodiment subscriber data-centric system 1700that includes components configured achieve improved data locality. Thesystem may include a plurality of logical scalable units 202, each ofwhich includes all the data and processing logic and resources for alimited number of users or subscribers. In an embodiment, the system1700 may include a logical scalable unit 202 for each subscriber. Inthis embodiment, there may be many instances of each functional node(e.g., GGSN, PCRF, etc.), but each instance is used for a very limitednumber of subscribers.

The logical scalable units 202 may include both control plane components(OCS, PCRF, etc.) and data plane components (GGSN, deep packetinspector, etc.). Since the logical scalable units 202 are selfcontained, all of the control plane traffic for a subscriber may be keptwithin a single logical scalable unit 202. In this manner, thesubscriber data-centric system 1700 may reduce network traffic andlatencies, and improve the system's scalability and elasticity.

FIG. 18 illustrates an embodiment system 1800 in which logical scalableunits 202 are organized in a hierarchical manner. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 18, the system 1800 includes a parent logicalscalable unit 202 a that includes a plurality of child logical scalableunits 202. The parent logical scalable unit 202 a may be included in asingle server blade having multiple multiprocessor server computingdevices, and each of the child logical scalable units 202 may beincluded in one or more of the server computing devices. For example, achild logical scalable unit 202 may include multiple processors in asingle server in the server blade.

FIG. 19 illustrates another embodiment system 1900 in which logicalscalable units 202 are organized in a hierarchical manner. In theexample illustrated in FIG. 19, the system 1900 includes a parentlogical scalable unit 202 a that includes a plurality of child logicalscalable units (S1, S2) 202. The parent logical scalable unit 202 a maybe included in a single server blade having multiple multiprocessorserver computing devices, and each of the child logical scalable units(S1, S2) 202 may be included in a multiprocessor server computingdevice. Further, each of the child logical scalable units (S1, S2) 202may include a plurality of other logical scalable units (P1, P2, Pn)that are each included in a single processor of the multiprocessorserver computing device. Each of these other logical scalable units (P1,P2, Pn) may be associated with a single subscriber, and thus the systemmay process subscriber requests without the use of threads or locks.This improves the speed and efficiency of the system 1900.

The various embodiments may be implemented on any of a variety ofcommercially available server devices, such as the server 2000illustrated in FIG. 20. Such a server 2000 typically includes aprocessor 2001 coupled to volatile memory 2002 and a large capacitynonvolatile memory, such as a disk drive 2003. The server 2000 may alsoinclude a floppy disc drive, compact disc (CD) or DVD disc drive 2004coupled to the processor 2001. The server 2000 may also include networkaccess ports 2006 coupled to the processor 2001 for establishing dataconnections with a network 2005, such as a local area network coupled toother operator network computers and servers.

The processor 2001 may be any programmable microprocessor, microcomputeror multiple processor chip or chips that can be configured by softwareinstructions (applications) to perform a variety of functions, includingthe functions of the various embodiments described below. Multipleprocessors 2001 may be provided, such as one processor dedicated towireless communication functions and one processor dedicated to runningother applications. Typically, software applications may be stored inthe internal memory 2002, 2003 before they are accessed and loaded intothe processor 2001. The processor 2001 may include internal memorysufficient to store the application software instructions. \

As discussed above the implementation of logical scalable units enablesthe addition and removal of LSU's in response to the communicationdemands on the network. FIG. 21 illustrates an embodiment method 2100for dynamically deploying and withdrawing logical scalable units withina telecommunication network as network demands dictate. In method 2100 aprocessor within the telecommunication network may monitor the level oftraffic in the network. In determination block 2104 the processor maydetermine whether the network requires an increase in throughput inorder to support current network demands. This may be accomplished bymonitoring a number of sessions within the telecommunication network. Ifso (i.e., determination block 2104=“Yes”), such as an increase in thenumber of sessions is detected in the telecommunication network, theprocessor may deploy another logical scalable unit (LSU) by configuringa server with the LSU processor-executable instructions and deployingthe requisite data and network connections as described herein. This mayinvolve adding a multiprocessor computing system configured to provide aportion of a functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and aportion of a functionality of a policy control and charging rulesfunction (PCRF). This may involve adding a multiprocessor computingsystem configured to provide complete functionality of an onlinecharging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function(PCRF) for a small subset of the users in the telecommunication network.This may involve adding a multiprocessor computing system configured toprovide complete functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and apolicy control and charging rules function (PCRF) for a single user ofthe telecommunication network.

If the network does not require an increase in throughput, (i.e.,determination block 2104=“No”) the processor may determine whether adecrease in throughput would be acceptable without impacting networkcapacity in determination block 2108. If so (i.e., determination block2108=“Yes”), the processor may remove an LSU from the network in block2110. This may involve terminating transmissions of new communicationmessages to a selected logical scalable unit, waiting for existingsessions of the selected logical scalable unit to expire, and removingthe selected logical scalable unit from the telecommunication network inresponse to determining that the existing sessions have expired.Alternatively, removing an LSU in block 2110 may involve terminatingtransmissions of new communication messages to a selected logicalscalable unit, transferring existing sessions of the selected logicalscalable unit to another logical scalable unit, and removing theselected logical scalable unit from the telecommunication network inresponse to determining that the existing sessions have beentransferred.

The foregoing method descriptions and the process flow diagrams areprovided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to requireor imply that the blocks of the various aspects must be performed in theorder presented. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art theorder of steps in the foregoing aspects may be performed in any order.Words such as “thereafter,” “then,” “next,” etc. are not intended tolimit the order of the blocks these words are simply used to guide thereader through the description of the methods. Further, any reference toclaim elements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a,”“an” or “the” is not to be construed as limiting the element to thesingular.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosedherein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the presentinvention.

The hardware used to implement the various illustrative logics, logicalblocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purposeprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) orother programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic,discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed toperform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor maybe a microprocessor, but, in the alternative, the processor may be anyconventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. Aprocessor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices,e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other such configuration. Alternatively, some steps ormethods may be performed by circuitry that is specific to a givenfunction.

In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitorycomputer-readable or processor-readable storage medium. The steps of amethod or algorithm disclosed herein may be embodied in aprocessor-executable software module, which may reside on anon-transitory processor-readable or computer-readable storage medium.Non-transitory processor-readable and computer-readable media may be anyavailable storage media that may be accessed by a computer or aprocessor of a computing device. By way of example, and not limitation,such non-transitory processor-readable or computer-readable media maycomprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium that may be used to carry or store desired program code in theform of instructions or data structures and that may be accessed by acomputer or processor of a computing device. Disk and disc, as usedherein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digitalversatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and blu-ray disc where disks usuallyreproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically withlasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within thescope of non-transitory computer-readable media. Additionally, theoperations of a method or algorithm may reside as one or any combinationor set of codes and/or instructions on a non-transitoryprocessor-readable medium and/or non-transitory computer-readablemedium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

The preceding description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enableany person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention.Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other aspects without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limitedto the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scopeconsistent with the following claims and the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of improving performance of a scalable computing environment in an elastically scalable telecommunication network that includes a plurality of logical scalable units (LSUs) that each provide a complete set of telecommunication functionalities for a subset of users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network, comprising: updating a data locality table in a router based on changes to the number of LSUs that are included in the plurality of LSUs, wherein the router is configured to: receive a Gx message that includes at least one of a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Number (MSISDN) value, a Frame-IP Address (FIA) value, or an Access-Point-Name (APN) value; generate a surrogate key based on the MSISDN value or a combination of the FIA value and APN value; use the surrogate key to query the updated data locality table and generate a query result; use the generated query result to: determine whether the received message is associated with any of the users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network, and identify an LSU in the plurality of LSUs that provides the complete set of telecommunication functionalities for the user in response to determining that the received message is associated with at least one user in the elastically scalable telecommunication network; and route the received message to the identified LSU in the plurality of LSUs that provides the complete set of telecommunication functionalities for the user.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a multiprocessor computing system configured to provide a portion of a functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and a portion of a functionality of a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) to the plurality of LSUs.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a multiprocessor computing system configured to provide complete functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) for a small subset of the users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network to the plurality of LSUs.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a multiprocessor computing system configured to provide complete functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) for a single user of the elastically scalable telecommunication network to the plurality of LSUs.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the multiprocessor computing system is a single server rack within a datacenter.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the multiprocessor computing system is included in a single computing device.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring a number of sessions within the elastically scalable telecommunication network; and adding the new LSU to the plurality of LSUs in response detecting an increase in the number of sessions within the elastically scalable telecommunication network.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: terminating transmissions of new communication messages to a selected LSU; waiting for existing sessions of the selected LSU to expire; and removing the selected LSU from the plurality of LSUs in the elastically scalable telecommunication network in response to determining that the existing sessions have expired.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising decreasing the throughput capacity of the elastically scalable telecommunication network by: terminating transmissions of new communication messages to a selected LSU; transferring existing user data from the selected LSU to another LSU and updating the data locality table in the router based on changes to the selected LSU; and removing the selected LSU from the plurality of LSUs in the elastically scalable telecommunication network in response to determining that the existing user data has been transferred.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a LSU that includes both a virtualized data plane component and a virtualized control plane component to the plurality of LSUs.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein adding the LSU that includes both the virtualized data plane component and the virtualized control plane component to the plurality of LSUs comprises adding a LSU that includes at least two or more of: the router; a policy server; an online charging server; an offline charging server; a mobile application server; or a deep packet inspector (DPI).
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: configuring a server device with processor executable instructions to perform functions of at least two or more of: a virtualized router, a policy server, an online charging server, an offline charging server, a mobile application server, or a deep packet inspector (DPI); connecting the server device to the elastically scalable telecommunication network; and transmitting new communication messages to an LSU implemented in the server device.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a LSU that is configured to provide machine to machine (M2M) functionality to the plurality of LSUs.
 14. A server computing device, comprising: a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising: updating a data locality table in a router based on changes to the number of LSUs that are included in the plurality of LSUs, wherein the router is configured to: receive a message that includes at least one of a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Number (MSISDN) value, a Frame-IP Address (FIA) value, or an Access-Point-Name (APN) value; generate a surrogate key based on the MSISDN value or a combination of the FIA value and APN value; use the surrogate key to query the updated data locality table and generate a query result; use the generated query result to: determine whether the received message is associated with any of the users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network, and identify an LSU in the plurality of LSUs that provides the complete set of telecommunication functionalities for the user in response to determining that the received message is associated with at least one user in the elastically scalable telecommunication network; and route the received message to the identified LSU in the plurality of LSUs that provides the complete set of telecommunication functionalities for the user.
 15. The server computing device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising adding a multiprocessor computing system configured to provide complete functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) for a small subset of the users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network to the plurality of LSUs.
 16. The server computing device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising: terminating transmissions of new communication messages to a selected LSU; waiting for existing sessions of the selected LSU to expire; and removing the selected LSU from the plurality of LSUs in the elastically scalable telecommunication network in response to determining that the existing sessions have expired.
 17. The server computing device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising adding a LSU that includes both a virtualized data plane component and a virtualized control plane component to the plurality of LSUs.
 18. The server computing device of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that adding the LSU that includes both the virtualized data plane component and the virtualized control plane component to the plurality of LSUs comprises adding a LSU that includes at least two or more of: the router; a policy server; an online charging server; an offline charging server; a mobile application server; or a deep packet inspector (DPI).
 19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform operations comprising: updating a data locality table in a router based on changes to the number of LSUs that are included in the plurality of LSUs, wherein the router is configured to: receive a message that includes at least one of a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network Number (MSISDN) value, a Frame-IP Address (FIA) value, or an Access-Point-Name (APN) value; generate a surrogate key based on the MSISDN value or a combination of the FIA value and APN value; use the surrogate key to query the updated data locality table and generate a query result; use the generated query result to: determine whether the received message is associated with any of the users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network, and identify an LSU in the plurality of LSUs that provides the complete set of telecommunication functionalities for the user in response to determining that the received message is associated with at least one user in the elastically scalable telecommunication network; and route the received message to the identified LSU in the plurality of LSUs that provides the complete set of telecommunication functionalities for the user.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations further comprising adding a multiprocessor computing system configured to provide complete functionality of an online charging system (OCS) and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) for a small subset of the users in the elastically scalable telecommunication network to the plurality of LSUs.
 21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations further comprising: terminating transmissions of new communication messages to a selected LSU; waiting for existing sessions of the selected LSU to expire; and removing the selected LSU from the elastically scalable telecommunication network in response to determining that the existing sessions have expired.
 22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations further comprising adding a LSU that includes both a virtualized data plane component and a virtualized control plane component to the plurality of LSUs.
 23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the stored processor-executable software instructions are configured to cause a processor to perform operations such that adding the LSU that includes both the virtualized data plane component and the virtualized control plane component to the plurality of LSUs comprises adding a LSU that includes at least two or more of: the router; a policy server; an online charging server; an offline charging server; a mobile application server; or a deep packet inspector (DPI).
 24. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing an existing LSU from the plurality of LSUs in the elastically scalable telecommunication network in response to determining that a decrease in a throughput capacity of the elastically scalable telecommunication network is acceptable.
 25. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the data locality table in the router based on changes to the number of LSUs that are included in the plurality of LSUs comprises updating the data locality table in response to determining that user information has been moved from a first LSU to a different LSU due to network scaling.
 26. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the data locality table in the router based on changes to the number of LSUs that are included in the plurality of LSUs comprises updating the data locality table in response to determining that session information has been moved from a first LSU to a different LSU due to network scaling.
 27. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a notification that user information associated with a user has been moved from a first LSU to a different LSU, wherein updating the data locality table in the router based on changes to the number of LSUs that are included in the plurality of LSUs comprises updating the data locality table in response to receiving the notification.
 28. The method of claim 1, wherein the router is configured to: associate the MSISDN value or the combination of the FIA value and APN value with a user. 